By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS
New Delhi : Creative art is the necessary instrument of the efforts implicit in human metabolism to perfect itself, to enable inner vitalities to flow across inhibitions, frustrations and handicaps in the evolution towards wholeness, wrote Mulk Raj Anand after seeing Amarnath Sehgal’s sculptures in 1954.
Amarnath Sehgal’s works served as a bridge between the people and the artist, who stood for artistic freedom, courage and moral right of artists to their work. Eighty-five-year-old Amarnath Sehgal, India’s Henry Moore, passed away Thursday. His death was condoled by artists and sculptors across the globe and by the vice president of India.
Sehgal’s death marks an end of an era of artistic righteousness. Sehgal will perhaps be best remembered for a 13-year lawsuit that he fought with the government of India to uphold an artist’s moral right over his work.
In 1959, the government of India commissioned a mural for the walls around the central arch of the Vigyan Bhavan. The sculptor was Amarnath Sehgal and the concept was provided by none other than the country’s then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was a “great friend”.
Sehgal completed the 140 feet-long mural in 1962. For 20 years, it occupied centre-stage at Vigyan Bhavan. Then the building was renovated and the wall was pulled down. The remnants of the mural showcasing “rural India” were stashed away.
Distressed by the destruction of his work, Sehgal moved court alleging violation of an artist’s moral rights. In 2005, the court settled the case in his favour and ordered that the remnants be returned to him. “I am convinced that an artist has moral right to his work, even if it has been paid for by an individual or by an organisation,” he once said in an interview.
Sehgal, who spent his time between Luxembourg and India, was the force behind the Creative Fund in 1985, which was formed to help third world artists. Most of his themes were contemporary – socio-economic ills that plagued India during his time and busts of public figures commissioned by the world organisations like the United Nation and the Indian government. And in his own words, “the two sculptures that made an impact nationally were those on population explosion and terrorism.”
Sehgal put Indian sculpture on the global art map at a time when Indian sculptures were not recognised internationally or understood.
“He was widely travelled, his works were widely exhibited and he was a wonderful human being,” recalls Rajiv Lochan, director, National Gallery of Modern Art, which houses a large body of the artist’s works. Lochan especially remembers a sculpture at Robin Island in South Africa, which Sehgal sculpted as a tribute to Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid.
Sehgal was a traditionalist. He refused to see art as an investment. Once when asked by an interviewer what he thought of the skyrocketing prices of art and its money spinning aspect, the artist said, “I am unhappy… I am no messiah, but moral values in art have taken a beating.”
Born in 1922, he graduated in Industrial Chemistry from Benares in 1941. He worked as an engineer and studied art privately at Lahore. He left for the United States in 1949 and earned a master’s degree in art from the New York University. His works are exhibited across continents spanning North America, Africa, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and India.
An individualist to the core, Sehgal believed that one must be subservient to one’s aim and ideals. “Deal with them, live with them, life is a beautiful experience” was the artist’s motto.