S. Dhanapal A Commemorative Volume (14th August-28th August,2001)

Dialectics of Tradition: A Critical Study of the Art of S. Dhanapal (1919-2000)

Dhanapal is not with us now but his memory is so much alive that we cannot believe that he is not with us. My association with him starts from 1972 onwards when I was involved in the spade work of establishing the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, the first college of its kind in Kerala. He associated with me along with the other great artists like K.K. Hebbar, Prof. Ambedkar, K.G. Subramanyan, Hanumante and N.S. Bendre, in building up the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum. Later I got the opportunity of associating with him in the General Council of Central Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. He was the one who introduced me to the General Council for the first time. I am proud to say that Dhanapal was my well wisher, advisor and a close friend.

The Fact that Dhanapal was an extra-ordinarily talented sculptor is widely accepted and had proved in many ways. Like Ram Kinkar for Bengal School, Dhanapal was to the contemporary school of South Indian Sculpture. His position is as important as the position of K.C.S. Panicker, the fore-runner of South Indian School of contemporary painting. It is no doubt that Dhanapal would have been a great painter and draughtsman, had he chosen painting. But he opted to be a sculptor. It was K.C.S. Panicker, who persuaded him to choose sculpture. The art world of India would have missed the astonishing career of a sculptor, had Dhanapal not opted for it. I strongly believe that Panicker was far-sighted enough to find out a promising sculptor in Dhanapal and now we can proudly say that Dhanapal is the pioneer of South Indian School of sculpture. While K.C.S. Panicker is the master of painting, Dhanapal is the master of sculpture. The successful story of K.C.S. Panicker would not be completed without mentioning the contributions of Dhanapal and the story of Dhanapal as a successful sculptor.

S. Dhanapal, was the Chennal based nationally acclaimed sculptor, pedagogue, dancer, jewellery designer and choreographer, whose education was at the Madras School of Arts and Crafts, later joining as a teacher and retiring as Principal. His oeuvre comprised of drawings, paintings and sculptures. The mellifluous rhythmic flow of human forms in drawing and painting arose out of his bodily rhythm as a dancer. His prolific drawings that served as the mental images of his concepts rested on the belief that to draw was to exist. His paintings had nuanced subtle charm of the Bengal School artists as well as the inspiration derived from the mural tradition of South. His claim to fame was premised on his pioneering vision, crafting sculptures that had dominant frontality without the loss of mass and volume, opening spaces within, which he manipulated through clever conflation of tradition and modernity. He waded through his efforts to arrive at quasi abstraction through quasi realistic works that maintained touch with reality. Dhanapal consistently believed that his sculptures translated as a dialogue of volume, rhythm and space. His pioneering efforts from an ideological perspective provided a bridge of connectivity between traditional elements with modernist idioms. Though rooted in the formal elements, the manipulation of space and textures were evocative of his sensitive feelings. These dimensions emerged out of his empathy regarding human nature. Bounded with his sense of self was the sense of what it was to be human.

Dhanapal's sculptures today have a ring of omniscience. He was a path breaker without realizing the valence his works carried particularly from the South in the crucial decades of 1950s and 1960s. He put sculpture on the pedestal of preeminence as it was in India's visual art tradition by reviving the discipline formulated as modern art form at the art institution and through his works. Human form remained at the heart of his works, treating it as a genre, essentialising to border on the abstract but never losing sight of its resemblance in its dissemblance. Striving always to be different, Dhanapal believed that success and reaching the pinnacle in style was not enough to make any artist rest on his laurels; as he continued to work till his last breath.

About the Author

Art historian, art critic and curator Ashrafi S. Bhagat, was the Former Head and Associate Professor of Department of Fine Arts, Stella Maris College [Autonomous] Chennai. She obtained her M.A. and M.Phil. Degrees from the Department of Fine Arts of the same institution. She completed her Ph.D. from Department of Art History and Aesthetics, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, in 2005. Her thesis was titled 'A Critical Study of Modernity in South India, with particular Reference to the Madras School 1960 and 1970s.

In the course of her illustrious career, Bhagat has authored over two hundred and fifty exhibition catalogues on various contemporary artists. Her essays on issues of modern and contemporary art have been published in various magazines, including Art India Magazine, Inside Outside, Namaste, Kaladirgėra, Nukta [Pakistan), Lalit Kala Contemporary and MARG. She served as an art critic for The Hindu, one of India's leading national newspapers from 2001 to 2011. Her published books include. Sculptural Configurations: Retrospective Progressive [2004]; monographs on seminal artists of Madras such as K.C.S. Paniker. A.P. Santhanaraj, R.B. Bhaskaran, S.G. Vasudev, P. Perumal, K.S. Gopal, R. Vardharajan. In 2017. Kalakriti Gallery, Hyderabad, published a monograph by Bhagat on artist Surya Prakash. She has been the guest editor for MARG journal's special edition titled Contempontry Art in South India, 2010. In 2012, she presented a paper at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, on E.B. Havell on the occasion of the influential art administrator's 150th birth anniversary.

Ashrafi Bhagat was an art historian-in-residence at Concordia College, Bronxville, New York, for an International Artist Camp in 2011. As part of Goethe Institute's visitor's programme, Bhagat was invited to visit the Berlin Biennale and Kassel Documenta in 2012. Bhagat was invited by National Gallery of Modern Art. Bengaluru, to curate Regional Modernity, Painting and Sculpture, 1960 to 1990, a show on the seminal artists of Madras Art Movement in 2017. The same year, she curated another show in NGMA, Bengaluru, which was a retrospective of Hyderabad based artist Surya Prakash.

In July 2019 she was invited by DAG, New Delhi to curate a show of artists on Madras Art Movement from their collection at Mumbai, titled "Madras Modern: Regionalism and Identity". On this occasion a book of the same title was also released authored by the curator.

Ashrafi Bhagat is the recipient of the Brew 'Women's Achievers Award in 2016 for her contribution as an art historian and art critic.