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16/04/17, 6)22 PMArtist Varunika Saraf dispels misplaced notions about miniature paintings - The Hindu
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INTERVIEW A R TA R T
The miniaturist
As she discusses her work, VarunikaSaraf dispels misplaced notionsabout miniature paintings
A large mood board warrants attentionat Varunika Saraf’s studio. On it arepostcards, clippings and drawings thatcould trigger a thought process. Varunikapoints to a small drawing with a shade ofcanary yellow. She’s using a similar shadefor a larger painting now. The floor of thestudio has large work-in-progresspaintings. Rice paper sheets pasted oncotton cloth come alive in watercolours.A small wall cupboard has some of herprized possessions — pigments she usesto make watercolours.
Layered narratives
Her work is a study in contrast, with large (sometimes 6ft by 6ft or more)watercolour paintings and the miniatures. Many a time, she incorporatesminiature drawings into a larger work to arrive at complex, layered narrativeslike she did with one of her initial solo show Chair in the Cloud and later withExcavating Realities, Erupting Reflections curated by Yashodhara Dalmiaamong others.
“I have drawn and painted ever since I can remember,” says Varunika, leafingthrough a few of her miniatures. On her 13th birthday, she received a copy of
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Varunika Saraf | Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
16/04/17, 6)22 PMArtist Varunika Saraf dispels misplaced notions about miniature paintings - The Hindu
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Stuart Cary Welch’s India: Art and Culture, 1300-1900, and the following year,Pratapaditya Pal’s Master Artists of the Imperial Mughal Court. “I was soinspired by the beauty of the Mughal drawings and paintings in these twobooks that I decided to seek formal training,” she reflects. Her schools gave herthe option of pursuing fine arts, where she became familiar with portraiture,still-life and landscape paintings. Eventually, she enrolled in a BFA programme.
To a layman, miniatures might conjure up images in really small sizes. Shedismisses that notion, “Etymologically ‘miniature’ is derived from the Latinword Minium (red lead) and was widely used in the context of medievalEuropean illuminated manuscripts because of the extensive use of red lead inmany of the early codices. In Indian art history, we use miniature as a label torefer to a vast array of paintings from the 10th to 19th century. Manycontemporary artists associate this word with producing something very smallin size even though several historical paintings are quite large. Some believethat any painting rendered with minute brush strokes can be called aminiature.”
A section of the art community believes that to create an authentic miniature,one has to paint on a wasli (special, handmade paper) using natural mineral andvegetable colours, just as artists in the past had done, even though the bulk ofpaintings available today are created using poster colours on handmade paperor cloth. “Many practitioners fear that their work will not qualify as anauthentic miniature if they digress, and this leads to a repetition of oldcompositions and techniques,” Varunika explains.
On one of the walls are a line of miniature drawings done with a silver nib on awhite, treated paper. These drawings are a part of her ongoing project Citizen Z,in which she references people and incidents from newspapers and magazines.
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Socio-cultural references
The historical, socio-cultural references are unmistakable in her work. Sheshows us a painting in progress in which she will have floats on water, carryingthings that are now being labelled unnecessary. “For instance, our history bookswill soon do away with Aurangzeb, Akbar and maybe even Nehru… There’snothing we do about it,” she says, pointing at a sea of tiny faces that are merespectators. Varunika considers her paintings as socio-historical documents,using the past to explain the contemporary.
In fact, what drew her initially tominiatures are the stories theynarrated. She felt they werewindows into a different time,place and culture. One of herminiatures is a take off on the17th century Mughal paintingportraying the death of InayatKhan. “Inayat Khan wastes awayslowly because of his opiumaddiction, a prince of Baghdaddrowns his favourite princess intothe Tigris, Tuti the parrot narratestall tales to his mistress Khojastato keep her away from her lover,Shaji pines for his beloved Mahji,it’s hard not to respond to theseworks. Moreover, I am inspired bythe technique; the fine drawing
layered with washes of colour. The way colour is used to create a mood or anatmosphere is absolutely stunning,” says Varunika.
Over the years, she has built her technique on these aspects and likes workingin detail on a large scale. Some paintings take her a month to complete andothers, six months or more.
Academically speaking: Varunikais pursuing her Ph.D on Souvenirs,Heritage and Fakes: The Making ofIndian Miniatures fromJawaharlal Nehru University, NewDelhi. “In my thesis, I examinewhy we call certain paintingminiatures and where this termcame from. Why is it considered adead tradition? If art historiansclaim that miniature painting
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declined with court patronagewhy are there several artists whocontinue this practice? Wherehave they come from, why arethey not a part of the art worldaround us? These are some of thequestions that fascinate me,” shesays.
Making colours: Varunika startedmaking her own colours out ofnecessity. Her paintings requireddeep hues that come from aconcentration of pigments unlikecommercially availablewatercolours that have a thickbase and fewer pigments. Shebegan sourcing pigments from artconservators. “I need more colours
since my paintings have several layers of colours,” she says. A bowl of coppersulphate blue lies on her desk. In another bowl are crystals she’s derived byreacting copper with acetic acid. “These crystals are ground to create the blue,”she says. The colour is corrosive and she intends to use that corrosive nature aspart of an art work.
(Varunika will be in conversation with artists Priyanka Aelay and PranatiKhanna at Kalakriti Art Gallery, March 9; 6 pm on ‘Women’s Practice in Today’sArt Fraternity’)
Printable version | Apr 16, 2017 6:22:16 PM |http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/art/varunika-saraf-dispels-misplaced-notions-about-miniature-paintings/article17427135.ece
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