The lecture by Savia Viegas, art historian and writer from Goa, at 1, Shanthi Road, got off to a late start due to an unexpected downpour. But the rain did not dampen the spirits of the art aficionados of the city who trooped in, to listen to Viegas explain the swadeshi twist to Angelo da Fonseca's art.
Like most creative people, who go against the grain, Angelo da Fonseca (1902-1967) was unable to work and remained unrecognised in his own home state of Goa. The established church, rejected the creative slant given to known and revered Catholic and Christian figures. Many in Goa were scandalised to see his paintings of the Virgin Mary wearing a sari with a very Indian look said Viegas. So Fonseca lived in an Ashram and worked along with the Jesuit priests in Pune.
Apparently Fonseca chose to be an artist as against a medical career, and his art was based on the premise that if Christianity was to thrive in post-colonial India it had to strengthen its Asiatic roots and reinvent itself. “He wanted the art of Christianity to grow out of the confines of the church walls and go out to the people,” said Viegas. He was initially influenced by the work of Abanindranath Tagore and brought the Bengal school of art to provincial Poona where he lived and worked for many years.
“I found a lot of similarities to Picasso where he found his mature fullness towards the end of his artistic career in the '60's,” said Viegas. “The stiffness of the ‘30's gives way to more fluid lines and accost the viewer.”
In Nuremberg, Germany, one of his paintings in a Jesuit collection has Christ on the Cross with no suffering on his face, instead his eyes are wide open and bright, looking at the viewer and almost saying, I am doing this for you. “He starts talking through his work to the people in the '60's,” says Viegas.
Apparently Fonseca did small paintings, among which very few were oils. He mainly worked water colours with a few pastels towards the end of his life. In fact, his paintings were done on cheap pieces of cloth and he worked on the important facets of Christianity, which were the Virgin Mother, the child Jesus and St Joseph. “1954 was the Marian year and so he got a lot of commissions of the mother and child which he worked and those are the images he is best known for,” says Viegas.
Another strange quirk was Fonseca hated to paint portraits but several people in his paintings were of women in his family. “What people in Goa disliked was the fact that he painted these elite faces with working class clothes on. Cotton saris, fertility symbols and simple jewellery which the elite women of Goa rejected as the sari was not worn by the elite. At that time the dress code was dictated by the Portuguese and the Christian identity was based on the western image,” said Viegas.
But today in the Rachol Seminary in Goa, which is 7 km from Margao, there are whole walls which are adorned with copies of Fonseca's work. “He constantly borrowed from Hinduism, but people have also found a lot of similarities with his work and Jamini Roy's. What endeared Fonseca to people was his impromptu painting on pieces of cloth and gifting it to people,” said Viegas.
Savia Viegas holds a Ph.D. in Satavahana sculptural art from the University of Mumbai and is also a journalist, novelist and painter. Currently, she is writing a book on Fonseca's work with a grant from the India Foundation for the Arts. She lives in the village of Carmona in Goa and runs a Foundation called Saxtti.
Published - July 29, 2011 05:55 pm IST