“My mother was a shy, tiny woman… from 3.30 in the morning till 9 O’Clock at night, she used to immerse in household works. She looked after the house so well. She nurtured us with virtues and brought us up with values…” (sic). This note, alongside a drawing of an elderly woman, carrying a pot, was gleaned from artist Rajan Krishnan’s sketchbook. Two arrows pointing to the feet of the drawing says: “her swollen feet”.
An exhibition at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery, titled ‘Sketchbook’, offers a unique insight into an artist’s inner world. The personal sketchbooks of 36 artists have been displayed along with prints of their works. The show, for its curator Shijo Jacob, was a labour of love. “I had always wanted to put together an exhibition of artists’ sketchbooks as a tribute to their creative processes. A sketchbook documents an art work’s journey into completion,” he says.
The sketchbooks contain, apart from drawings, research notes, broken lines, scribbles, text, and even bits of fabric. “A sketchbook is intensely personal, looking at it is like looking into an artist’s mind,” says Shijo, who heads the Department of Painting at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram.
Putting the show together proved more time consuming than Shijo expected. Sourcing the sketchbooks, especially those of senior artists, was difficult. “Their keepers, family members in most cases, were not too sure of parting with the precious books,” he says. Shijo, however, persevered, promising to return the original books without any damage.
The sketchbooks have been displayed in sealed wooden boxes with glass tops, below the print of the artist’s works. “These books have to be treated with archival importance. It goes beyond the scope of a mere art show; it gives an experience of being in a museum,” he says.
The show contains books of senior artists such as M.V. Devan, K.S. Radhakrishnan, C.N. Karunakaran, Namboodiri, Akkitham Vasudevan, K.G. Subramanyan, and sculptor Ramkinkar Baij along with those of contemporary artists. It also includes the books of Rama Varma Raja, son of legendary artist Raja Ravi Varma, A.R. Poduval, a surgeon and artist, whose sketchbooks hold a mirror to the socio-cultural history of 19th century Kerala and Danish artist Johan Benthin, among other eminent names.
The show is on at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery till April 21.
