Rajasthan has, from the early medieval period, been a repository of our feudal art and culture. At the turn of the century, it was introduced to the style and nationalist vision of the Bengal School, among whose pioneers were Ram Gopal Vijayavargiya and P N Choyal. So, Delhi is fortunate to be treated to a retrospective of the latter at the Lalit Kala Akademi in collaboration with the Dhoomimal Art Centre as well as the release of a book, A Voyage Along the Broken Line.
Choyal is remarkable for not only helping the art of Rajasthan go beyond its medieval and eighteenth century limits without losing the continuity of that rich inheritance, but for founding a family tradition that today includes his son Shail, daughter-in-law Surjeet and grandson Akash. It is to his credit that in keeping with the perspective of modern art, they do not follow the ?master? as in the case of the ?Guru-Shishya Parampara? of the Bengal School, but
each of them has a distinct style. This is no small achievement.
Born in 1924 in Kota, he took his diploma in painting from the Jaipur School of Arts, Mumbai, where he got his diploma in 1953. From here he moved to the Slade School in 1961-62. This gave him an excellent grounding in the themes and techniques of the Bengal School and Rajasthani court art as much as in the modern. At the same time, it also helped him break away from the art of the past and endowed him with a radical vision to go with it.
He uses this grounding with finesse. Thematically he focusses on a rural India being swept by winds of change with feudal ruins in the background. His works reflect a steady shift towards a more and more turbulent present. And in it, the presence of a pregnant female figure without a face. Could this be the birth of a new social order out of the womb of the old?
The exhibition of the works of Mr Choyal shows the dissolution of the linear figure into a series of lines that interlink areas of colour in spaces full of movement and mystery. This exhibition is worth a visit for two reasons. It not only gives one an insight into the harmony of line and colour the artist has arrived at after a lifetime of experience, but also the various steps that have led up to it. More than that, we see the imagery of a young romantic, an older radical and the visionary of the apocalypse evolving over time. But what strikes one is the resilience and the integrity of this artist over time as the works of his old age still carry the passion of his youth. This, after all, is what good art is about. u