At Serindia Gallery, all is still and calm until you look closer and everything -- the landscapes, animals and plants -- suddenly comes to life. Magnifying glasses are of course provided. In the exhibition "A Painter From Bikaner", Indian traditional miniature painter Mahaveer Swami presents a selection of his exquisitely detailed works whose subjects range from the mundane daily lives in India, landscapes and animals to tales from mythology.
Born in a family of traditional Bikaner painters (a city in the northwest of the state of Rajasthan in northern India), Swami began training at a young age with his father and grandfather. While possessing the ability to perfectly copy what he sees onto canvas, his constant exploration in new subjects has also gained him recognition as a contemporary artist.
"His ethereal colours and exquisite brushwork are combined with inner vision and great sensitivity of the world around him," the exhibition text reads. "The works possess finely-tuned technique and rigorous discipline of his tradition. Swami proves that there is no real gap between contemporary and traditional, there is only art."
In a recent interview with Life, the 57-year-old painter talked more about his career and the tradition of miniature painting.
Can you tell us more about your background?
I am rooted in the local soil and culture of Rajasthan, based in the historic city of Bikaner. I learned to draw and paint as a child, observing first my grandfather make and supervise paintings on the wall of the mansions in the desert state, and after from my father who worked in the railway workshop as a painter. Their tools, the jute bags, paper or any other left over material and colours that I could lay my hands on, kept me occupied for hours at a stretch. Late after post schooling my fascination for art took me to Jaipur [the capital of Rajasthan], where I did my formal training at the Rajasthan School of Art. To fend for myself in Jaipur, I had to trek for miles daily and work hard on commissions to make copies of master paintings on cotton fabric, ivory and miniatures that gave me both the confidence and mastery in various techniques.
Can you elaborate more on the tradition of Bikaner style of painting?
The style of painting developed in Bikaner is more relevant to Mughal paintings [a particular style of South Asian painting] than to other Rajasthani paintings. The reasons are firstly, the close association of the Bikaner rulers with the Mughal emperors, such as Raja Rai Singh was particularly close to Akbar and Jahangir. Secondly, the unemployment of Muslim painters from Delhi and Agra. These men painted some exquisite examples of this school during the reigns of Rai Singh, Karan Singh and Anup Singh. Their subject matter included excellent portrait studies. In these paintings the dazzling colour of Malwa, the folk scenes of Jodhpur or the striking landscape of Bundi are totally absent. Instead of these regional characteristics of Rajasthani paintings, Bikaner produced extremely sophisticated works with delicate lines and tonal range normally encountered in the products of Mughal studies.
Can you tell us more about your studies of Mughal and Rajasthani miniatures? How did they influence you as an artist?
I used to do lot of commission works to survive in Jaipur and I consider myself fortunate because it was a time when I was first introduced to such rich styles and techniques in traditional art, moreover I get the chance to develop numbers of replications of Persian, Mughal and other various styles of Rajasthani paintings. These practices enhanced my ability to foresee lots of possibilities in it. Later I created my own compositions on the life of sufi, saints, sages, yogi, monks, yoginis, [holy men and women], the daily life of Indian women and different terms of Hindu mythology.
How are you different from other traditional miniature painters?
My art terrain presents a large expanse of diverse creative reflections that mirror the artist's encounters with what I have inherited along with my response to the ever-changing time and space as in contemporary reality. In sync with established traditions and practices as exemplified in the art of illustrated manuscripts of the medieval era on the one hand, my artworks represent a continuum within the living arts of today's India, on the other.
Landscapes, animals and plants are predominant in your works, what's so fascinating about them?
I am an Indian traditional artist carrying traditions with the exquisite usage of experimentation. My breathing of foreign air has made me more conscious of that very element of contrast. It subtly soothes the visual experience for any observer to see two traditions building a newer narrative. My countryside visits into the serene lands of France, Korea, Japan and China have resulted in tranquil visual knowledge. You may observe detailing in botanicals, teapots and landscapes, merging into the traditional Indian style of paintings with contrasting backdrops or sometimes with intuitive subjects that only an insightful person could notice.
"A Painter From Bikaner" is on display until Aug 7 at Serindia Gallery, O.P. Garden, Charoen Krung 36.
Mahaveer Swami. Photo courtesy of Serindia Gallery
