KISHORI KAUL( 1939-2018)
From Kashmir, she was the first girl to go to Baroda and learn painting. Courageous, and determined, she achieved what she aimed despite numerous obstructions and blocks in her way. In a way, Kishori broke all social barriers to pursue her passion for the arts.
Kishori Kaul (1939-2018) was born to a Kashmiri Pandit family in Srinagar. Pandit Narayan Murtsagar, a well-known miniature artist from Kashmir. Narayan Murtagar was the father of her grandmother. Her father too had an artistic bent of mind. Born in 1939, Kishori studied at the newly set up schools opened at the initiative of Annie Besant. Her grandmother introduced her to the world of colours and gave her brush and colours to play with. A bout of tuberculosis in 1953 left her heart broken. Recovering from it, she was sent to artist Som Nath Butt who taught her the use of colours and some basics of drawing. Later, she went to Baroda where her teachers included stalwarts like K.G. Subramanyan and N. S. Bendre. She was more influenced by N S Bendre.
An Indian Modernist artist, painter and educator, Narayan Shridhar Bendre was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Bendre is known for forming the Baroda Group of Artists in 1956 and founding the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1954. The dominant subject of his artworks was landscapes and portraits rendered in different stylistic idioms. Bendre encouraged and mentored a whole generation of artists like G R Santosh, Shanti Dave, Jeram Patel, Balakrishna Patel, Mansingh Chhara, Kishori Kaul, Prafful Dave, Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Ratan Parimoo, Naina Dalal, Jayant Parikh and Farokh Contractor. In 1966, Bendre resigned from the Faculty of Fine Arts and started working and showcasing his works in Mumbai.
She did her Master’s Degree in painting in 1966 from Baroda University. Kishori Kaul’s artistic oeuvre is deeply rooted in and inspired by the verdant vistas of Kashmir. Her works have been exhibited widely in India and abroad in venues such as Gallery Art Heritage, the Lalit Kala Akademi, the Tokyo Biennale, and India House London.
( Kishori Kaul at the exhibition of artist P N Kachru in Delhi ..2009..Photo Source ...Umakant Kachru)
Speaking about colours in Kashmiri life, Kishori says this:-
“Our whole way of life was deeply connected with colour. Spring and the cultural festival of going to the almond orchards at the foot of Mount Hari Parbat. to celebrate Almond Blossom Time. The rich yellow of the mustard fields stretching across the field of vision, the vibrant vermilion used in rituals in homes and to drape the Goddess Shakti. My cultural background understood religion in a non-puritan way, as an aesthetic and creative experience closely linked with nature. Festivals and rituals were an extension of nature.”
She received the National Award from Lalit Kala Akademi in 1981, and her works feature in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and the Patiala Museum, Punjab apart from many private collectors the world over.
WHEN DR ZAKIR HUSSAIN CAME TO INAUGURATE HER SHOW
At her first solo show at Shridharani Gallery in the late 1960s, someone asked her to invite the then President Dr. Zakir Husain to inaugurate the exhibition. An innocent Ms Kaul went straight to Rashtrapati Bhavan, invitation in hand. She recalls, “As I was waiting to see the President, a vigilance officer asked me, ‘Have you taken an appointment from him? He doesn’t meet anyone without one. Before I could answer, the President passed by. I said loudly, “No, I have come to invite the President to my solo exhibition.’ He heard it and called me inside. I requested him to honour my show. He asked me about myself and the kind of work I did, but didn’t promise anything.”
“On the day of the show, I was waiting for him — not sure how seriously he had taken me that day — when I suddenly saw a traffic jam and several horses gathering around. The President had actually come! There was a commotion. The media ran to cover him. Dr. Husain kept on asking me lot of questions on how I did a particular work. I was amazed to see how keenly he took interest in art,” she says.
In an interview with Rana Siddiqui Zaman of the Hindu , Kishori has said this:-
"The artistic atmosphere and the company of people like M F Husain, N.S. Bendre, Somnath Barve and many more artists opened “a new vista” for me. The day I was coming back after completion of the course, I heard my father had expired. My world had shattered. My mother sent me to Jhelum to my aunt’s home where I set up a studio and found my solace in painting. From there, I started sending paintings to Delhi, Calcutta (then) and Bombay (Mumbai) for shows by getting them framed and packed all by myself. Slowly, art admirers began to recognise me.”
In the study of her work over the years of her life, one journeys with the artist as a student of painting in Baroda, influenced by her teachers’ styles, to finding her own expressionist wings in the years to follow, to harking back to her roots by referencing the environs of her homeland, Kashmir. Some paintings and portraits done by Kishori are hereunder:-
Bendre's influence can be seen clearly in Kishori's paintings done at Baroda or during the early period of her life. This is visible in the treatment of women on canvas. However, while Bendre imparts more facial features to his female forms, Kishori prefers to remain focused on the eyes.
Cubist influences can also be seen in the early phase of her work. Fractured forms with their interweaving planes and lines make up Kishori's human figures as well as still life works. Very skillfully she succeeds in the dissection of forms into planes served to emphasize the two dimensionality of the canvas instead of creating an illusion of depth. There is geometricity and restrained use of colours in some of her paintings done in the cubist genre . Blue and white have also been put to predominant use in these paintings.
Johny ML, Delhi based art critic writes this about Kishori's art:-
"In Kishori's works from the 1960s, we see her using thick impastos of oil paint with a palette knife for its application. The works have that modernist vintage flair that attracts one towards her paintings. Kishori is one kind of woman artist who has not differentiated her language from that of the male artists of her formative years and later on. There is intrinsic evidence that tells the viewer of her indebtedness to the late 19th and mid-20th century male painters of the West routed through the Indian modernists. As she progressed in age, she seemed to have loosened up her otherwise tight palette with thick knife applications and let the canvas peep out through the brush strokes. She has finally picked up the brush and left the knife behind. The change in the tool has made all the difference. The background becomes lucid, and the contours are visible in their curvaceous lines. They almost look like Japanese portrait paintings with blank background created by pigment swatches. And her works are nature inspired ; there are landscapes, close up of lotus ponds, lily ponds and so on. The spring in her mind comes back in random strokes on the canvas through liberated colour applications."
Kishori exhibited her paintings at Baroda, Srinagar, Bombay and Delhi along with G.R. Santosh, Trilok Kaul, P N Kachru and others. She was a member of the Baroda Group started by NS Bendre.
(Photo Source: Write up of Lakshmi Nagraj / Asia Art Archives. A document detailing a list of members of the Baroda Group of Artists. )
Gauri Parimu Krishnan, daughter of Prof Ratan Parimu and Naina Dalal has this to say:-
"Kishori Ji remained in Baroda for her graduation, post-graduation and otherwise during her formative years. She was very close to my parents, both of whom happen to be artists on the National scene. My father is a well-known international art critic and historian who has authored many books. My parents and Kishori Ji were very close friends, and I stayed with her several times when I visited Delhi from Baroda. She lived in Babur Lane, walking distance from Bengali Market. Her home was full of her art, and I remember seeing her later works inspired by nature. My father Ratan Parimu has also written a long article on Narayan Murtugar in India magazine many years ago."
Umakant Kachru son of eminent artist P N Kachru says this :-
"She was certainly a great modern artist with her own distinct style. As you know, my father happened to be the founding member of the Progressive Artists Association in Kashmir apart from SN Butt and Triloke Kaul. I have known her since last many decades. My father had a very close association with Kishori Ji. A very compassionate lady and a great lover of Kashmir and its culture ."
In 1968 she fell in love with and married Mr Inder Varma, a scientist and journalist. However, Mr Verma died 11 years after their marriage. Left alone, Kaul, however, didn’t stop painting. She had her residence cum studio at Connaught Place in New Delhi. In September 2023, an exhibition of her work was held at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi after her death. Named, 'How Green Was My Valley', the exhibition showcased her journey in Art with a focus on her Kashmir paintings. This is what Meera Menezes wrote in the catalogue essay for this exhibition:-
“Her skilful handling of colour comes to the fore in her rendering of efflorescence as can be glimpsed in her paintings from the 1990s. Her technique of employing oil paint as she would watercolours imparts a delicate feel to these works. Impressionist tendencies too can be spotted in the daubs of paint and her adroit harnessing of light. As ethereal forms arise, melt and dissolve they evoke transient, ephemeral sensations. The play of hide-and-seek in these artworks that border on abstraction was certainly intentional. As Kaul herself mentioned, "I believe in the art of suggestion; in the artist's need to veil as much as reveal."
The artist remains unknown to the younger generation of Kashmiris.
( Avtar Mota )
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