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( Portrait of artist Bhushen Kaul by Ravi Dhar )
Born at Batapora in the apple town of
Sopore, Bhushen Kaul studied at Hindu High School, Badiyar (Srinagar) where
stalwart poet Dina Nath Nadim was his teacher.The same school was later renamed Lal Ded Memorial High School.
He joined Gandhi Memorial College, Srinagar and moved to Baroda to study art.
This is what Kaul told this author:-
“My father Sarvanand Kaul was a man of many
talents. I can say nothing less than a genius. He was an artist, writer,
businessman, Hakeem and above all a compassionate human being .He moved to
Srinagar city from Sopore before 1947 and joined Amar Singh Technical Institute
to learn sculpture. However, there was no sculpture stream and he could not
learn it. And then the Pakistan sponsored ‘Tribal Raid’ took place and there
was disruption on all fronts. He had to leave the college halfway. He then
tried to fulfil this dream by sending my elder brother Umesh to Baroda .However
, Umesh stayed in Baroda for some time and returned to Kashmir without
obtaining a degree.The noted artist Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh was Umesh ‘s
batchmate at Baroda .Roopawati, my
mother was a warm and compassionate woman. Any person coming to our
house was touched by her cordiality and affection. She would not leave any
guest without having something prepared by her. Noted Kashmiri poets Vasudev
Reh, and Rugh Nath Kastoor were my first cousins from father’s side. Noted
Kashmiri writer and playwright Hriday Kaul Bharati was my real brother. We
lived in the same house at Batapora, Sopore. All of us lived in a joint family
with children first in Srinagar and then in Jammu. It was unusal. Many people
would envy our bonding.”
BARODA TRAINING
His going to M S University, Baroda for earning a degree
in fine arts was the fulfillment of the dreams of his father and his elder
brother Umesh Kaul. After both of them had to walk out from their colleges with incomplete
degrees , both were determined to see young Bhushen joins Baroda and comes out
with a degree. He too had inclination towards drawing and painting
.Accordingly, he was sent to Baroda where great master N S Bendre took him
under his tutelage. Bendre had some special liking for artists coming from
Kashmir. He had lived in Kashmir for 3 years during the rule of Maharaja Hari
Singh. He had also trained Ratan
parimoo, G R Santosh, Triloke Kaul and Kishori Kaul from Kashmir .An Indian
Modernist artist, painter and educator, Narayan Shridhar Bendre was 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 post grauation, Bhushen Kaul was tutored by K G Subramanayan.
At Baroda his batchmates were Shamshad Hussain, Vivian Sundram, and Mrinalini
Mukherjee.During his training only, Bhushen Kaul had earned a name for himself
as an accomplished artist.
ART OF BHUSHEN KAUL
As artist,
Bhushen Kaul is known as a master of colour, light and texture. He uses colours
to create most ideal and appropriate hue, saturation and brightness in his
work. About use of colours in art, Bhushen Kaul says this:-
“I am of the opnion that colours are the basic
ingredients for creating balance in a work of art. I hold a firm belief that
colours have communicative
power.Throughout history, various art movements have embraced colour as
a fundamental expressive component of art. Whether
through traditional painting, sculpture, or cutting-edge digital media, artists
use colours to communicate emotions, provoke thought, and engage viewers. The choice of colours also takes into
account the principles of colour theory, which dictate how colors interact and
harmonise. Henri Matisse once said,’Colour helps to express light, not the
physical phenomenon, but the only light that exists, that in the artist’s brain’.I
have carefully studied colour usage by masters like Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet,
Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe and Mark Rothko and drawn inspiration.”
The
depiction of light in painting is another tool that puts him at a very high
pedestal as an artist.Together with it, he is also a great master of
placement of shadows and highlights in his work so as to create illusion of
form.Talk to him and he will explain the
details about Chiaroscuro (from
Italian chiaro,
“light,” and scuro, “dark” technique), Sfumato
( the technique of fine shading), Tenebrism (painting technique that uses deep darkness to generate a spotlight effect) and the
intricate Hatching ( techniques that have been used for centuries to
create texture and shading in drawings) styles in paintings.
Texture is another area where he is a
master.he uses stiff brushes, palette knives, catalyst blades, wedges, spray
bottles and many other tools. He is also
known for his using techniques such as sponging, colourwash, stippling,
dragging and many other texture painting techniques. About his art, Bushen Kaul says this:
“Experience enlivened and
observed – that is my art .I reconstruct inexplicably exuberant feelings and
look at them with pensive wonderment."
One needs to see his paintings like , ‘ The Judgement ‘ , ‘Memoirs of a scribe ‘, ‘Paradise Lost ‘ and some more done after 1990 to appreciate how best
and in surrealist style he presents through suave colours the tragedy that
befell his motherland. The dark hue in the Dal Lake landscape that he created
which became quite popular, gives an amazing feel of twilight.
Again, he is a master of many
mediums.Lately he has started working with holder nibs using colours and ink
.The ‘Art of Exile’ that is being
created by him lately is being done with holders and nibs using colours.
THE STUDIO OF EXILE
After 1990, Bhushen Kaul’s art took a turn and his canvases started expressing something he felt and experienced. He could not be indifferent to the sweeping changes that took place in his homeland resulting in the death and destruction accompanied by the exile of Kashmiri Pandits from their motherland. One may call it ‘Art Of Exile’ but Bhushen Kaul named it ‘The Studio Of Exile’. From this Studio emerged a series of paintings that were named, “ Rangoon Death“, ”Cry “, “Exodus “ and ”One Of These Days, Sky Will Break “. He created many paintings under these titles.
He
held many group exhibitions and many solos
.His paintings were exhibited in Bangladesh, Turkey, Cuba, USA and many more
countries. He exhibited it at Mumbai, Delhi Kolkata, Chennai and many more
cities in India. The last exhibition he did was in the year 2018.There
is hardly any art critic or connoisseur of art in the country who has
not appreciated, written or commented on his work. He has been a friend,
philosopher and guide to many apart from being a role model
for his students at the Institute of Music And Fine Arts,
Srinagar and then at Jammu where he
served for many years.He is known for setting systems and procedures so that it
becomes easy for anyone to implement things in a coordinated and displined
manner.
Noted
sculptor Padama-shri Rajendra Tiku had this to say:-
“He
is a real Guru and a master. His paintings bear stamp of his individual
style. His sketch work is fantastic. I had the closest association with him
and thank god it remains so to this day. I will tell you an anecdote.
Possibly in September 1973, when he was my teacher, he made some drawings on my
sketchbook. He had not signed them. A few years ago when he came to Jammu, he
visited my house and I brought the sketchbook for his signatures. He took no
time to sign his work. Sometime later, i went to a reputed framer's shop
in Delhi to get all those sketches framed. The framer, who happens to be
an art connoisseur, was highly impressed by these sketches. Looking at
them, he told me:-
‘Who has done these sketches? I have
seen and framed sketches in thousands but not seen something like
this. Can I keep them for one day? I will put them on my wall for one day and
keep looking at them. ‘I allowed him to look at these sketches for three
days. That is Bhushen Koul. Besides being a
learned and profound artist, Bhushen Ji (as we call him) has been a strong and
eternal 'Pillar' of Systematic Art Academics in the state of J&K.
Having been a direct student of luminaries like N.S.Bendre, K.G. Subramanayan, Jyoti
Bhatt,and Prof Parimoo, he very earnestly introduced at the Institute of
Fine Arts, Srinagar , an academic system on pedagogical structure like the
Faculty of Fine Arts ,M.S University , Baroda.Needless to say that a
number of his students including me got highly benefited with the same.All of
us here owe debt to Bhushen Ji. "
(The author with Bhushen Kaul at Press Club ,Jammu ul at Press club Jammu )
The noted columnist and writer,
Ravinder Kaul said this:-
”He’s
an amazing painter. Many years ago the Institute of Music and Fine
Arts, teachers and students had put up an exhibition cum sale of their
work at the Abhinav Theatre complex in Jammu. It was a stupendous success (why
it was never repeated despite being a grand success the first time around
remains a mystery that defies logic and rationale). I bought quite a few works
of art in the exhibition which were being sold at amazingly low prices.After a
month or so, as I was returning from Europe and had a stopover at Istanbul
airport, I met Rajendra Tiku, who was returning from Israel after attending a
camp over there. I told him that the only regret I will have in life is that I
could not buy the works of Bhushen Kaul and Rajindra Tiku in the
exhibition as these had already been sold out by the time I reached the venue.
I'm a great admirer of the creative genius of both these artists."
The noted poet Agnishekhar said this :-
"He was kind enough to draw big potrait of
Goddess Sharada on my request. I released it in the 2nd World Conference in
1998 in New Delhi at the hands of Mahesh Bhatt and Jyotishi Prem Nath Shastri.Many
memories in my bank. I had many sittings with him regarding the concept and
legend of Goddess Sharada wearing Kashmiri attire. His illustrious brother
Hriday Kaul Bharati used to be witness.
A great painter indeed and above all a great human being”
Sometime in 2009, he exhibited
his work in Delhi .Commenting on his work , Statesman newspaper wrote this :-
“The
sensitive artist has laid threadbare the heart lacerating experience of the
tragedy that struck Kashmir------ Bhushen’s birth place. That he raises no
accusing finger on anyone makes it more unbearable Bhushen has been able
to bring the widest scope to his personal predicament, privation, misery by
raising it to the level of universal loss and therefore tragedy of immense
magnitude. This as is well known, happens to poetic souls in all art forms. To
unburden himself of a personal tragedy he had to understand and internalize its
basic structure to handle it properly poetically. He had to internalize colour
to colour it with the true content and quality of tragedy that had struck him
so as to pour itself out in detached forms in order to secure them from petty
particularization, lugubrious sentiment, and maudlin emotion. What required was
the constant application of severe controls on blending, choice and handling of
colours. To have been able to open out his soul in such wonderful manner is a
great tribute to him .The sensitive artist has laid threadbare the heart
lacerating experience of the tragedy that struck Kashmir------ Bhushen’s birth
place. That he raises no accusing finger on any makes it more unbearable."
And Times of India wrote this:-
“The
most rewarding show in the town is that of Bhushen Koul. What catches your eye
at first instance is the spontaneous interaction of glowing colours on his
canvases. They are pleasing and lively without being sentimental. Also these
colours are Bhushen's own, they carry no hangover of any other, tried and
tested palette. "
And it was artist Bhushen Koul who saw talent in Zargar Zahoor, Delhi based
noted painter from the Kashmir valley and advised him to go to
Baroda for proper training.
The paintings of Bhushen Kaul are held
by institutions and individuals across the globe. I am informed that following
paintings of Bhushen Kaul are held by the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages
(J&K).
(1)’Valley’
37x44 Oil on Canvas… July 1993
(2)
‘Untitled’ 33x43 Oil on Canvas …1999
(3)
‘Search Continued’ 3’x4’ Oil on Canvas… 2010
These works are also displayed in the
website of the Academy but the actual fate of these paintings is not known.
He is also a recipient of many State
and National awards .A father figure who is least bothered about awards and
publicity. And his work commands respect and good price with art collectors and
connoisseurs.
He retired from IMFA Jammu as Head of
painting department, a place where he set many innovative systems to simplify
learning of art .All along his life he has been against the hobby classes and
part time classes in art. He always believed that art was a serious field and
it needed fulltime attention. He was instrumental in abolishing the hobby classes
in IMFA, Kashmir and making it fulltime course the degree for which was granted
by the University of Kashmir. He paid a price for this as this decision didn’t
go well with some bureaucrats who saw that he is shifted to Jammu. And Jammu
was the place where he could create systems for any person to follow and raise
art to a level comparable with institutions in the rest of the country.
(The author with Bhushen Kaul at IMFA, Talab Tillo ,Jammu )
For sometime, he was seen often in
Talab Tillo area of Jammu city. After
the unfortunate death of his wife, he moved to Jaipur to live with his son.
From Jaipur, he moved to Mumbai where his another son stays. In November 2024,
this author met Bhushen Kaul twice; once at the Institute of Music And
Fine Arts, Jammu and then at the Press Club Jammu. The meeting at the Press
Club, Jammu was also joined by Ravinder Kaul noted theatre critic and
writer and Rajesh Kaul former senior officer of Doordarshan. It was a memorable
evening with Bhushen Kaul. He discussed the art scenario in the J&K UT and
contribution of artists from the UT. He was kind enough to show
photographs of his latest paintings done with holder nib and ink/colours. He
hasn't had any exhibition after 2018. He said this in the latest meeting:-
“I
do nothing except painting in Mumbai where I live at present. There was a time
when my work was bought while I was only drawing the outline. That period is
over. Evolution takes place on all fronts. An artist also arrives at a stage
when he wants to remain cut of from the market players of art and focus on
painting for the call that comes within. This call moves you towards
contentment and real happiness. "
For the young generation of artists,
Bhushen Kaul has this message:-
“My advice to young artists is that art is like any other profession. At its initial stage, it is simply education. Once we learn, we need to unlearn. Anything done with sincerity after that is Art. We must know what is what and then create something different. That is art. One must study old masters to know what has already been done in any field. We must not do what has already been done. Young artists should always try to do something different from what already exists. It is a lifelong Sadhana and never learnt overnight. Even great master were learning till their last day on this planet. And last but not the least is hard work. To develop skills, one has to exert and work hard. ”
Like Nadim's poetry that carries hidden music, Bhushen Kaul's canvases convey abundance of romance in colours. Never ever has this author found his colours gaudy. Will we ever recognise our own icons?
(Avtar Mota)
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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