Artist Dr. Nalini Bhagwat remembers painter A. A. Raiba as
a painter of varied expressions...
While discussing about Raiba after a few days
of his demise, she shared her memory of personally meeting him a few years
back. She had conducted his interviews which were published in newspapers. She
showed one of the published interview in the Marathi newspaper Loksatta. I
requested her to let me edit, translate and publish it as our heartfelt tribute
to the great artist. Dr. Nalini readily agreed and gave me the briefed article that
is substantial to know the life of Raiba which was initially full of struggle
for living and self-identity, his unicity and his achievements as an
artist.
Raiba had confessed that before being an artist, he was
a proud Indian. He was grateful to his homeland for nurturing him and his art.
He never desired to leave India and settle in any other part of the world.
Living in poverty, he completed his studies with lot of difficulty but his
passion for art and painting was undeterred by these conditions. He wanted to
pursue education in Art from the Sir J. J. School of Art, but couldn’t afford
the fees. His problem was solved by Fazalbhai Trust Scholarship.
His paintings were so impressive that he was
admitted directly in third year painting class. Raiba had the opportunity to
work in guidance of Jaggannath Ahivasi and he developed liking for miniature
painting. During this time he also got 20 rupees scholarship! This scholarship
may seem so less to us, but back then it was a big amount for Raiba because he
was so poor that he was not even in position to bring wholesome tiffin to
college, so he did not mix up with other students. He would buy Indian gram
flour noodles (gathiya), go to nearby Masjid and eat with the dry bread (chapaties)
that he carried to the college. He never regretted this kind of lifestyle, and
never felt ashamed in his future life to tell the truth because poverty did not
hamper his passion for painting. He concentrated only on his paintings and was
determined to make his work more and more effective. His passion paid off so
well, that he passed with flying colours in 1946 and Principal Gerard offered
him the Fellowship.
While in the Sir J.J. School of Art, he never missed
the opportunity to visit various places and paint his experiences there. These
paintings based on the real life experiences were liked by people. To name a
few: ‘Forgotten Gothic Cathedral’ painted after his visit to Calicut and Pondicherry,
‘Ruins of Aundha fort’ were his Goa’s memories, remembering Sikkim- Bhutan and
Nepal he painted ‘No man’s land’. In 1948 he received bronze medal from Bombay
Art Society for the painting ‘Shringar’. The following year he received silver
medal for ‘Glory of India’. In1950 he got an opportunity to visit Kochi and
based on his experiences at Kochi he painted ‘Lullaby’, which again fetched him
a bronze medal.
From 1940 onwards, with the help of Art Director of
newspaper group ‘Times’ Raiba’s paintings were published in ‘Illustrated
Weekly’. Observing his passionate work
from 1940 to 1950, the then art critic Rudi Wan Lyndon, proposed to include him
in ‘Progressive Group’. Raiba joined the group, but as a matter of fact, his
thought process was completely different from the other members of the group.
In1956 he participated in ‘Progressive Artists’ Group’ exhibition, but his
paintings were totally of Indian style and there was no rebellious and
distorted theme in it. Newton D’Souza who was the Founding member of the Group,
was his classmate in the Sir J. J. School of Art and was also the member of the
Progressive Group. But Raiba did not remain in the group for long and soon he
resigned from the group. In 1955 he exhibited his paintings based on Kochi’s
experiences, at Delhi. The painting ‘Cochin Fishermen’ is presently in museum
at Nagpur. Another painting ‘Green Lagoon’ fetched him Gold medal from the Bombay
Art Society and he got lot of recognition.
Raiba’s sketching was very impressive. He also had
his own style of painting. Impressed by it, D'Souza invited him for commissioned
work of painting Ashoka Hotel in Delhi. The work was completed with the help of
three to four more painters. The money was equally distributed among them.
After giving some amount to his siblings, Raiba spent the remaining amount to
fulfil his wish of visiting Kashmir to experience its vast beauty. He stayed
there for three years from 1957-1959, but during this period he saw the pathetic
condition of people over there. He could sense the dissatisfaction and sadness
of people to such an extent that he did not feel like painting beautiful miniatures.
He felt the need to show the pathos of these people in his paintings. Maybe,
here his experience of Progressive Group must have helped him. He used charcoal
and white colour and without minute detailing painted deformed paintings. Not a
single painting of this series was sold, but Lord Harrison’s aged wife
appreciated the paintings. While painting landscape at Nagina Garden, in
Kashmir painter Bendre happened to come there. He saw the painting and
appreciated it a lot. After two year when Raiba sent it to annual exhibition of
Lalit Kala Academy, in 1961, he won National Award for it. After this year, he
flourished as an artist. In 1963 he participated in exhibitions at Egypt, Rio
de Janerio and Paris. ‘Genealogical tree’ and ‘The King and the Queen are dead’
were his most sorted paintings of that period.
After coming back from Kashmir, Raiba developed interest
in Occult science. He studied the subject and we find there after he had
developed too much realistic style in his paintings. The mysterious aura was
projected by mixing colours.
From the year 1945 till 1965 there were many
dramatic changes seen in his paintings. He had realised that the external
appearance of the person and the inner self are totally different. He noted
this difference. He painted self- portrait in which he showed the mask of his
happy face displaced a little and under that was a sad, gloomy face. He presented
this painting to Langhammer, which may now be with Keku Gandhi. While going
back to Europe Mrs. Langhammer gave the painting to Keku Gandhi, requesting the
assurance from him that the said painting would be given in charge of the National
Museum that was supposed to be built in Mumbai.
Human figures were prominent in his paintings.
‘Barahmaas’, nine painting series ‘Nav-ratna’ and ‘The other side of moon’ were
prominently human figure paintings.
Raiba’s style got a different angle (nature painting)
with exhibition based on experiences of Vasai. The exhibition was a big hit.
All the paintings were sold. So, this was a major phase of change in style and
movement towards nature painting.
After 1983 there was yet another revolutionary
change in his style of paintings and that was in the material that he used for
painting. During this period he experimented with glass painting and enamel painting
and gave layer effect on one of the part of glass. Cry Foundation used this
artwork for their greeting cards. In 1985 he set glasses in such a way that
enamel on every part of the glass projected as one whole painting the layers of
glasses produced single plain effect. Raiba also worked on canvas. He painted
cityscapes with the top view, capturing the houses, roads, sunrise and sunset.
He painted these like miniature painting instead of filling colours that gave
photographic effect. The plain strokes like calligraphy was the USP of Raiba.
Raiba’s contribution to Indian Art is praiseworthy.
He left this world on April 15, 2016 but will always remain alive in our
hearts, because Artist never dies!
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