User:Shami mendiratta

DESIGN-KUNIKA-CHANAKYA-AUROBINDO-STUDIO ONE: 1960 - 90.

I wanted my life to work... with the beautiful people, the creative people, the knowledgable people, the crazy people. So I joined the DESIGN in 1960. It was the best printed and published magazine in India, devoted to art and architecture publisthed from Bombay.

Six years of apprenticeship with Patwant Singh, the never-say die boss of DESIGN, opened new frontiers of the creative world... that of the dancers, the musicians, the poets and the theatre groups.

In Delhi, Kunika Chemould Art Centre exposed me to the mass media. Regular coverage of art activities in the Express Group of newspapers and radio,kept me in high spirits. The dynamic wit of Som Benegal and the dedicated involvement of Kekoo Gandhi gave me the strength to embark on my own.

Came GALLERY CHANAKYA in 1969, the turning point of my life. Painters, sculptors and graphic artistis of fame and promise from Bombay,Calcutta, Delhi, Madras and Baroda, coaxed me, pushed me and helped me to project their works.

Husain gave me the stamina, Swaminathan the insight, Gujral the vision and Santosh the spriritual strength. Ram and Gaitonde brought in silence.

During 1968-84 Gallery Chanakya presented over 95 one man and group shows of contemporary art along with the tattoo designs from Bastar and the ir-resistible drawings by Abu Abraham. Several lecture tours to Europe, United States of America & Canada under the government cultural exchange programmes gave me new vision to the art world, which was both familiar and new.

Under the banner of STUDIO ONE, ably run by my friend Prima Kurien, I dedicate my first one man show of drawings and watercolours to: The sensitive people, the creative people, The knowledgable people, the crazy people.

HAPPY DIWALI, to all of you, dear friends.

Shami Mendiratta October 15, 1990

From the catalogue of Shami Mendiratta " ART IS LIFE: LIFE IS ART". (Kala hi Jeevan Hai: Jeevan hi Kala Hai) 1990, INDIA.

Some of the articles written by Shami Mendiratta:

1. "The enduring quality of M.F.Husain´s art" the Sunday Standard:September 10, 1967.

2. "Artists pursue new ideas" on the 1st Triennale of World Art in New Delhi. The Sunday Standard: March 10, 1968.

3. "World Art Meet" on the Firste Triennale in Delhi Patriot: March 20´1968.

4. "Through the Eyes of a Painter" On the 1st short film by M.F. Husain which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1969. Design: September issue, 1969.

SHAMI MENDIRATTA The Process of Churning in Creativity by Suneet Chopra

Art has been a way of life for Shami Mendiratta for over four decades and few know every nuance of it as he does. Starting on the Design magazine, he did his apprenticeship under Patwant Singh, that grand old man of Delhi. Then with Chemoulds at their Kunika Gallery. Here he met, his second boss, Kekoo Gandhi, and finally, started his own art gallery, Chanakya, in 1969- As a gallery person he came into close contact with a number of artists, especially G.R. Santosh, Shanti Dave, J. Swaminathan and M.F. Hussain, whose work he exhibited ande whose trials and tribulations he shared. But more than that, he managed many "firsts".He was the first to exhibit the now well-known Madhurbani artists from Bihar in Delhi. He was the first gallery owner to represent India at Venice. And there is a string of names among well-known artists whose work he exhibited for the first time in his gallery. All this inspired him eventually to paint himself. Then he became the first gallery-owner to close shop and become an artist. It all began with experimental doodles and water colours, encoruraged by his wife, Prima, then he did a 52 foot long scroll, and finally, large canvases in oils and acrylics, tele-filmes, and now, mixed media works on slate sheets form the Dahauladhar range, old wooden doors and windows,and murals. Experiment more than expreience guided this journey. It is natuaral, therefore, that one finds an echo in his works of other experimental artists, like Paul Klee, Wasssily Kandinsky or Joan Miro. But only an echo. For there are other points of reference that place his work squarely in our own art environment and nowhere else, reminding us that art and concrete experience share the same common material basis. Even mataphysical experiences have their material roots. In one of his Ether series, one can see a form that is so common in our hills and mountains, that of a temple on a mountain-top, with either a shining shikhara, or a pennant fluttering from it- but his particular arrangement reminds one not so much of that, as of J. Swaminathan´s Bird and Mountain series. One suddenly realises that the cut-out of a bird on top of a mountain has a far deeper significance in our visual aesthetics than one thinks. And only and artist who shares something in common with another can remind one of his work or reveal its inner secrets in this way. Other works in the same series put together material elements in a free combination with symbols trapped into daily use by religion, like the Ek Inkar scrawled on a door; or by the slate, like coins stuck on the surface of some of these works, or the postage stamp in his Gandhi series. Sometimes the comment is even sharply political, as in one such drawing where a dotted line directs the eye from a Gandhi stamp towards an Indira Gandhi like figure wearing a tiara, reminding one of how Gandhi also serves to give legitimacy to a number of persons and trends that have nothing to do with him intrinsically. His name has become something to conjure with. And the artist informs us he knows about it too. I am certain this was not the artist´s intention, for his work emerges out of the interplay of matter and movement. And movements then build a chain of forms that may or may not tell a story. The story may have elements of metaphysics in it, of day-to-day transactions, of deep underlying emotions as in his Creation series. But whatever the reference, his art gives form to it in a process we describe in our origin myths as manthan. It is a process beyond good and evil, giving birth to both poison and amrit, the potion of inmortality, reminding one that all these divisions are temporary and of our own making, while the process goes beyond them. Art not only comprehends this but leaves behind material evidence of its truth. To know that is enough.

(From the catalogues of Shami Mendiratta´s exhibition at ART HERITAGE, New Delhi, 1996)

Shami Mendiratta Art & Artist “Shami Mendiratta has promoted more than a hundred artists, some of whom straddle the international art scene. “Mendi”, as he is affectionately called would not hurt a fly. Shami, as he is fondly remembered, is a sincere friend, philosopher and guide. In being all this, Shami the artist has neglected himself, and the decades have rolled by”.

Looking every inch and artists with long white hair and beard, when he speaks in measured tones and a subtle humour,  he speaks like a poet. Dressed in a simple Kurta-churidar, who is this Roerich of the flat Himalayas? Shami Mendiratta is greated equally affably by the senior successful artist who was sponsored in his salad days by Shami´s art galleries. Today´s young artist too leans forward to learn the abc of art pursuit and the magic of making it in the Sotheby´s auctions. Shami Mendiratta has promoted many artists, some of whom straddle the international art scene. Mendi, as he is affectionately called would not hurt a fly. Shami, as he is fondly remembered, is a sincere friend, philosopher and guide. In being all this, Shami the artist has neglected himself, and the decades have rolled by. The first ambitious wife left for glamour and gold while Shami with adequate resorurces cared for fast growing good-looking daughters. That money and position were important in impressing people was unknown to his value system as conservative husband and father, Shami believed marriage were made in heaven. How could a marriage lovingly put together by his parents fall apart? The holy Granth Sahib that he resorted to more and more could not be wrong. Yet something went wrong; the wife moved on to more glamour, more “cloud nine” promises. On the rebound he met his second wife, a young novice in the art administration and starved of mature advice about the bad wicked world. Shami needed a raison détre for his living, and he took good care of his young wife. Depression and despair seemed to have abated and the birth of a baby boy spelt new happiness. “Andretta”, the new home in Kangra Valley didn´t unfold harmony, though his two daughters from his first marriage had also joined the happy couple. The daughters left and took up jobs. The young second wife, not to miss the busy life of a metropolitan city stayed in Delhi with her child. Shami brooded and found solace in the snow mountains all around. Meditation and the Granth Sahib gave him peace and the artist in Shami reacted cerebrally to the beauty of nature and its transcendence. Earlier, Shami had “doodled” and the little diagrammatic compositions roused a chuchle or deep thought. Paul Clee comes to mind. Shami is a master of the minimal, in his verbal expression, too, an allegory or metaphor would have to do, no long explanations, no justifications, no melodrama, nor an iota of self pity. A prestigious gallery like the Art Heritage recently displayed larger uniquely framed objects´ d´art that brought a touch of the mystique of the Himalayas, and a surfeit of symbolism and outright abstraction. Viewed from different angles, the same tussle the antipathy between virtue and vice, the struggle seems unmistakable. Many tales are told but the ending is ambiguous, open ended, as if waiting for the ultimate miracle, hope. “Meditation has taught me tolerance to admit mistakes that I was not even aware of, yet pay the price for failure. Failure? I did not know the meaning of the word: everyone around me was happy and so I too was happy. What else could a human being want?. Money, possessions, verbal expressions of love have never mattered but suddently these matter. Meditation persuades me to “accept” my mistakes if I want a new chapter of repentance… so be it”, says Shami. Shami Mendiratta is not bitter or resentful. He seems to imply that he has learnt to be seen to be honest as this has become more important than practice of honesty itself. If only people forget the past and live as one big happy family!. However, his paintings have empowered him to start afresh with “Andretta”, a forum for artists. Lecturing abroad on art in India, Shami found himself wined and dined by heads of State and ambassadors. This role made him feel humble as he remembered his motorcycle and simple life style in India. Snobbery was not in his vocabulary nor jealousy at a colleague´s rise to fame and fortune. Advertissing and business administration background, and several decades of art entreprencurship found Shami dedicated and devoted only to the art profession. During the lean season, he missed arranging art and began to dabble in meaningful designs and abstractions behind concrete scenes and themes. Naive art, surrealism?. “Challenge: Is not life itself one big challenge?. At sixty, I do not take life as it is doled out to me. I create, I administer. Every aspect of life is wonderful. I am greatful. My wives, children, mother are my good friends. I look forward to my daughters inviting me to their wedding. And if I can see and chat with my five-year son regularly, my cup of happiness would he full to the brim… And I shall paint as my Meditation directs me… I ask nothing more of life…, “ says a fine human being, a refined art administrator and an artist par excellence. Vasantha Iyer October 27 1996. Sunday Herald, India