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I S M Y C R E A T I O N
YOUR FORMI TUZE ROOP MAZE DENE
BHASKAR HANDE’S EXHIBITION OF PAINTING DRAWINGS SCULPTURES & GRAPHICS INSPIRED BY “TUKARAMACHI GHATHA”
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S M Y C R E A T I O N
VwPo én _mPo XoUo (‘TUZE ROOP MAZE DENE’) 2008 (C) Copyright Bhaskar
Eknath Hande
All rights Reserved. No Part of this Publication may be reproduced in any term or by any means, including Photocopying without Prior Permission of the Copyrighter. Publisher : Sandhya Bhaskar Hande Vaishwik Publication (India) Text: Dilip Chitre Rob Van Tour Bhaskar Hande
YOUR FORMI
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S M Y C R E A T I O N
YOUR FORM IS MY CREATION
TUZE ROOP MAZE DENE PREFACE The exhibition "Yo "Your ur Form Is My Creation" consists of about 300 artworks artworks made by the painter,sculptor and poet Bhaskar Hande. Bhaskar Hande hails from the state of Maharashtra in India and lives now already for 25 years in The Hague, The Netherlands, as an independent artist. In "Western" eyes his work could be placed within the abstract-expressionism, abstract-expressionism, but on further consideration we find also symbols, colours, forms and shapes reminding us of the culture of his land of origin. Bhaskar Hande has grown up in the rural parts of Maharashtra Maharashtr a where also the great seventeenthcentury poet and saint Tukaram lived. The poems and hymns of Tukaram are in our time still part of the everyday life of hundreds of thousands of human beings. The 300 artworks (paintings, gouaches, drawings, lithographe, silkscreens silkscreens and and schulptures) are inspired by the ideas of Tukaram and the purpose of this exhibition is to make the world of Tukaram accesible for a western audience, for people with so many other languages in the East, and to enliven it for Marathispeaking people. TUKARAM
Tukaram's stature in Marathi literatu literature re is comparable to that of Shakespeare Shakespeare in Engiish or Goethe in German. He could be called the quintessential Marathi poet reflecting the genius of the language as well as its characteristic literary culture. There is no other Marathi writer who has so deeply and widely influenced Marathi literature and literary culture since. Tukaram's poetry p oetry has shaped the Marathi language, as it is spoken by 50 mil ion people today, today, and not just the literary culture and language, Perhaps one could compare his influence with that of the King James version of the Bible upon speakers of the English language. For Tukaram's Tukaram's poetry is also used by illit illiterate erate mill ions to voice their prayers or to express their love of God. Tukaram was born in 1608 and vanished without a trace in 1649. What little we know of his life is and reconstruct ion from his own autobiographical poems, the contemporary poetess Bahinabai's memoirs in verse and the later biographer of of Mar at at hi poet-saints, poet-saints, Mahipati's account. The rest is all folklore, though it cannot be dismissed on those grounds alone. Tukaram was born a vaishya at the middale of the caste hierarchy. A series of traumatic events in his life, including the devastating devastating famine of 1629 in which he lost his first wife, made him withdraw
from normal life and turn to religion. However, However, his writing and singing in praise of Vitthal (Vishnu) to ecstatic audiences was unacceptable to the Brahmins who took religion to be their preserve. Consequently he was forced to drown his entire work in a river. He was presumably told by his mocking detractors that if indeed he were a true devotee of God, then God would restore his sunken notebook notebooks. s. Tukaram then undertoo undertook ka fast-unto-death fast-unto-dea th praying to God for the restoration of his work of a life time. After thirteen days of fasting, Tukaram's sunken notebooks reappeared from the river. They were undamaged. BHAKTI
Tukaram became part of the Bhakti-movement, which was the middle-way between the externes of the Brahmins on the one hand and folk-religion on the other. other. Like during Reformati Reformation on time in Europe there was a tendency towards a direct contact between the devotee and his Gold in his own language, without interference of priests - a pure religion, disposed of the frills added by time and convention. Bhakti Bhakti was also the most democratic and egalitarian egalitarian community of worshippers, sharing a way of life and caring for all life with a deep sense of compassion. Bhakt i is founded in a spirit of universal fellowship. Its basic principle is sharing. The deity does not represent any sectarian dogma to the worshipper but only a common object of universal love or a common spiritual focus, Poetry is an other express! on of the same fellowship. Tukaram may have written his poems in loneliness but he recited them to live audiences in a shrine of Vitthal. Hundreds of people gathered here to listen li sten to his poetry poetry.. There has been described by a contemporar contemporary y poetess how Tukaram, in a state of trance, chanted his poems while an enraptured audience rocked to their rythm. SAYS TUKA
Tukaram saw himself primarily as a poet. He has explicitly written about being a poet, the responsibility of a poet, the difficulties in being a poet and so forth. Tukaram's genius lies for an important part in his ability to transform transform the external world into its spiritual analogue. The whole world became a sort of functional metaphor in his poetry, poetry, a text. His poems have an apparently simple surface. But beneath the simple surface lies a complex under structure and the tension between the two is always subtly suggested. The famous "Signature Line" of each poem, "Says Tuka" opens the door to the deeper structure. Aphoristic, witty, satirical, ironic, wry. absurd, startling or mystical, these endings of Tukaram's poems often set the entire poem into sudden
reveres motion. They point to an invisible, circular or spiral continuity between the apparent and the real, between everyday language and the intricate world-image that it often innocently implies DILIP CHITRE
The translation of seventeenth-century Marathi poetry in modern English is a very very complicated thing to do, During many periods of his life has Dilip Chitre been doing this, fascinated again and again by the beauty and the relevance of Tukaram's work for present-day life -and to make Tukaram's poems and thoughts within reach of an international audience. Dilip Chitre was born in 1938 in Baroda, India. Among his published works are two collections of his Marathi poems a collection of short stories and an anthology of contemporar contemporary y Marathi poetry in translation. translation. Dilip Chitre has so far authored many(no. Of books) books, of which is his translation of the 3200-line mystical Marathi poem Anubhavamrut Anubhava mrut - The Immortal Experience of Being written by the pioneer Marathi poet Shri Jnandev in the 13th century. Dilip Chitre was a member of the International Writing Program, Iowa, Iowa, U. S. A. in 1975-76. He has lived and worked in Africa, the U. S. and many parts of India and has lectured in universities in Europe and the U. S. A.He lives at present in Pune. India
BHASKAR HANDE
The Artist
The Hague-based artist Bhaskar Handé was born in India in 1957 in the village of Umbra] near Pune in, Maharashtra Maharashtr a state. His family was of the Kshatriya caste, a high order of warriors from time immemorial. From generation to generation his forefathers were among the leaders and custodians of the village. The past lives on vividly in this small community and until recently the village had maintained its medieval circular shape with one central entrance. The inhabitants are largely tillers of the land who supply every day one of the most important fruit markets in Bombay, 'Crawford Market'. The village, now housing five thousand inhabitants, maintains original artistic traditions such as the performance of folk dramas, in which Bhaskar also took part as a boy. The atmosphere of life in this rural area of India is evoked excellently in the poems by the poet Arun Kolatkar, now also wellknown beyond India and part of whose poem 'The Bus' is included here. The tarpaulin flaps are buttoned down on the windows of the state transport bus all the way up to Jejuri A cold wind keeps whipping and slapping a corner of the tarpaulin at your elbow You look down the roaring road You search for signs
of daybreak in what little light spills out of the bus Yourr own divided face in a pair of glasses on an old You man's nose is all the countryside you get to see You seem to move continually forward towards a destination just beyond the caste mark between his eyebrows Outside, the sun has risen quietly It aims through an eyelet in the tarpaulin and shoots at the old man's glasses The adventurous spirit of the young Bhaskar led him at the age of 16 to exchange his sheltered existence in Umbraj for the challenges of the big city Bombay. Bombay. Thanks to his artistic bent he received commissions to paint cinema hoardings for the great Bombay film industry. Returning to his native village after several years, the whole world of his youth had disappeared. The authentic historic village had been swallowed up by a reservoir. His parental home, the school, the houses of friends and relatives, the places he had played: everything lay deep underwater with the exception of the age-old temple built high on a hillside which is now only accessible by boat in the rainy season. For the local inhabitants, a new and anonymous village has been built on the edge of the lake. That is how fast things change in the new India. An uprooted Bhaskar Hande returned to Bombay to become a working student at the local art academy. academy. During his study he became friends with part of the new generation of artists: filmmakers, actors, writers and poets, fine artists. He performed in a theatre group, travelled much of India with the group and got to know other large cities such as New Delhi and Calcutta. He graduated in 1981 and acquired work at an advertising agency. At the secondory school and academy he became acquainted with Western art history and he felt the need to continue his studies abroad. On the advice of friends who had already visited the 'West', he did not select London or Paris, but sought contact with art academies In Japan,Italy, the United States and The Netherlands. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague was the first to react and he was admitted to the Monumental Painting and Design course in 1982. A complete outsider, outsider, he found himself in this unknown world. In 1984 he graduated and embarked on the Animation Film course at the Vrije Academic in The Hague, Since 1987 he has put his paintings on show regularly in The Hague, Amsterdam and other European cities like Bruxels, Paris, London etc. He has also developed as a graphic designer and in 1989 he founded his own design studio in The Hague. From time to time he has been returnning to India to see how fast things change in that ancient country. In his work he
has maintained something of the great traditions of his country, country, only descernable to initiates in the glowing tones and the wilful stylistic language. His Work
The work of Bhaskar Hande has a meditative and philosophical background and evolves from many biological, economic and sociological systems. His thoughts on this are never still. 'In process', as he himself says. A thought hangs on, attracting more and more attention and then acquires a fixed form that is abstract, combined with thoughts of complexity, parallels and aspects. Bhaskar is also inspired by time passing, knowing that he himself has to work. His sketches and forms are also a reflection of time, developing in works in different techniques and materials, which in turn contribute to further thought. He has not acquired any specific examples or inspirations i nspirations from art history.. He reads Indian philosophy but also follows history the contemporary media and uses it all in his ideas. He does not want to copy or duplicate but to do what he can, be what he is: original. 'It is an individual thought that becomes universal. ' He reproduces his thoughts and influences in visual forms on canvas. Not everyone can read poetry everyone can experience a painting in his own way. The material must contribute to the whole concept of the work. The invisible thought can be formed with colours, materials, measurements and forms. The mind and the heart are in continuous interaction and cannot be separated. The natural process of thought is meditation. Harmony and balance are the universal values which he wants to express. The circle, the square, the triangle and the oval form symbolize in his work eternal stable values. Intuitive and emotional lines meander within these forms. Rest and restlessness keep each other in balance and the colours provide evidence of a search for this balance. The ratio cannot survive without emotion and Bhaskar Hande's work is as filled with contrasts as life itself. Rob van Tour
‘‘Tuze Roop Maze Dene’ is a visual arts exhibition with a difference. It is the first large scale effort by a contemporary artist to respond to traditional Marathi bhakti poetry. These paintings in various media, graphics in different techniques, and models of sculptures conceived on an architectural scale are the response of one modern (or should one say postmodern) artist to one of India’s greatest poets, the Marathi mystic Tukaram. The exhibition is unique on several other counts, too. Bhaskar Hande was born Umbraj in the Maval region not far from Dehu where w here Tukaram was born. Though four hundred years apart in time, both share the same native universe. Though Hande has been living Europe for about thirteen years now and has become a Dutch citizen, his cultural signature has remained the same. He coninues to write excellent poetry in Marathi and his paintings are nourished by visual forms that can be traced back to to rural Maharashtra. His sence of colour, colou r, texture and form is distinctly Indian. In ‘Tuze Roop Maze Dene’ his Indianness comes out even at the conceptual and thematic level. Yet Bhaskar Hande’s Indiannes is not ethnicity worn on the sleeve. It is i s the very substance of his cultural identity in a multi-cultural, global community of artists. It is remarkable remarkabl e that he brings the refereshing force of Tukaram’s poetic vision into his paintings and sculptures giving them a comprehensive cultural context. Any serious evaluation of these works will have to account for their cultural orgin. Bhakti Abhyaspeeth decide to sponsor ‘Tuze Roop Maze Dene’ precisely because it is the first large-scale effort by any contemporary artist to interpret the work of a major bhakta poet or to calim inspiration from traditional bhakti poetry. This is a novel dialogue between the language of poetry poetr y and the language of painting in which motifs from the unique religious culture of varkari pilgrims figure prominently. Hande’s leitmotif is the key image of Vithoba given varied geometric and perspectival treatment by the artist. Semi-abstract shapes and figures of objects familiar to the people or rural Maharashtra, tools and implements used by farmers or rural housewives for example, spring up in striking forms and compositions throughout these works. Many of Tukaram’s poems have picturesque, vivid visual imagery. They become texts for Hande at the t he level of painting. Yet Hande;s work in not crudely illustrative or elaborately narrative though subtly suggestive of its cultural origin.
‘Bhakti Abhyaspeeth’ has been founded fot the study of bhakti in all its socio-cultural dimensions as the mainspring of the Marathi literary tradition. It proposes to establish four centres of reserch and museums at Dehu, Nevase, Paithan and Pandharpur. It will also encourge translations of Bhakti literature and documentation of recitation, singing, dancing, bhajan, keertan and so forth. It will support interpretations of bhakti tradition in new and nontraditional media because ‘Bhakti Abhyaspeeth’ has been founded in the belief that the bhakti tradition is a vital component of the continuity of Marath culture as well as its dynamics of change. DILIP CHITRE
Sculptures
Oil Paintings
Acrylic Paintings
Conte-Pastel Drawings
Gouache
Lithographs
Acrylic Drawings
silkscreens
Photography
Exhibitions
Why This Belonging
In India I have been asked very often: how ho w did you get interested in Tukaram? Question that cames from common persons, journalist, press reporters, critics and enthousiasts who know the subject and where surprised. My journey led me from Umbraj to Bombay and thence to The Hague (Holland). My journey Umbraj for, nine years in Bombay and 25twenty five years in Holland. H olland. All these years I dwelled among different peoples, struggling to survive. I led a restless life, but never stopped reading readi ng and writing. There were many byways beside the highway. In the process I continually kept memories of my village, seeming so attractive in the rat-race of city life and the absence of my mother tongue amoung different peoples in foreign surroundings. These reasons caused me to become introverted. But the distance made me more aware of the impressions, of my childhood memories from the countryside, my culture and religion, which became more prominent in my thoughts. So they entered into my writing. My first collection of poems DASHAK (decade) was partly influenced by these impressions. Tukaram’s roots are deep in this earth. When I first realized, I was in a period of growing understanding, my eyes began to see, my mind was getting impression, I was breathing fresh air. I saw Tukaram Dyaneshwar in the theatre, in kirtan performances, in the pilgrimage to Pandharpur by my parents. A small statue of Vitthal and Rukhmini Ruk hmini standing by the God Khandoba, paintings and statues of varkari’s and saints inside and outside the temples. These impression were engraved in my mind from childhood. At first when I read Tukaram, his work was very hard to understand for me. I kept kep t on trying regularly. At the time I was beginning to apprehend app rehend the power of writing. This was in 1979, as I was taking lessons at the Art Academy. My visuals where accompanying the words, or the other way round. Now it seems difficult to decide which was first, the visual or the words. I was interested interest ed in drawing, but
did not practice much. I was mostly doing stage performances. In my secondary school examination I choose Art History instead of Mathematics. I was not sure of further academic education, so to make a living I joined a firm producing filmposters in Bombay. With my natural talent for fine arts I began to draw large faces of moviestars, and painting them in oilpant. At the same time I was admitted to the Art Acadamy. I supposed to attend evening courses of literature. I was avidly reading all kinds of new writing. In applied art, literature ad the visual arts became more elaboratem supporting supportin g each other. I won State Awards and people took an interest in my my work. Drama, cinema, world trade fairs, literary publications and new circles of friends occupied me day and night. After five years of advertising course I obtained my diploma of Applied Arts. Now was the time to begin to understand Tukaram’s Gatha. I went through an unstable period of my life, hopes and confidence. I had come to know another world. Advertising was a glamorous field, but I wanted to obtain a more complete knowledge of my capacities and intellect. I began to study advanced arts in foreign cultures and made a move in that direction. This is how I came to Holland. From 1983 to 1987 I stayed in a completely different culture, with a different language and atmosphere. There were shocks on several levels. In the village I was a farmboy, in the city I was a country bum and in that foreign country I was an Indian. I became conscious that I was nowhere, not amoung my own and my state became increasingly pinched. Whenever I got a chance I visited the farm. Why is this longing? I thought over and over. Where on this earth will I not get the feeling of being a stranger? I tried to fill an answer to this question. Slowly I began to understand the spiritual harmony between Tukaram and Vithoba. I began to see the meaning of not to belong to people or places. This is not enjoyable or unenjoyable, neither to be a devotee or an atheist. Then I started to believe in my being. During the last 25-twenty five years I have been traveling between Europe and India. I have seen many aspects of life, but I cannot answer the question why I live in Europe Euro pe and not in India or other way around. One might say this is a dual situation, but I do not consider it as such. I search for meaning meani ng in the paradox of these traditions. They become a mixture of philosophies, cultures and traditions, out of which growns a new meaning of my life. Devotee and deity will stand on one level like Tukaram and Vithoba.
Visual and poetry together, this concept comes out when I present DASHAK (Decade) with exhibition. I had selected ten poems to make painting out of them. One of the poems, I realize the form of Vitthal. In the process of reading Tukaram’s Gatha, the form grown up vividly. Images, forms, symbols and metaphor which Tukaram described in his work comes again and again. It inspired in his work comes again and again. It inspired me. Produced drawing, paintings, sculptures, in graphics: litho’s, silkscreens. I have worked regularly under certain circumstances. At the period of travelling up and down to native place many books had been read for thirst of knowledge Among them are Dilip Chire’s ‘Punha Tukaram, and its english version’ Says Tuka’ Tuka’ give impules to search Tukaram and his poetry critically. I live in Europe last 25-twenty five years. Europe is developed in visual art since fifteenth century. Holland is land or Rembrandt, Rembr andt, Vermeer, Van Van Gogh, Piet Mondriaan and many other masters. I work here and exhibit works simultaneously. The cultural face of Europe is changing. The art world come to the point to nowhere. All the ism turning themselves around. Flashing power emerging universly than continently. Malevich, Paul Klee, Picasso, Miro, Dali, Dali , Henry Moore, have passed by. They have brought people to the museums to have spiritual experience. Now art scene desperately seeking new streams. I saw many images and forms in the dialogue between Tukoba and Vithoba. Those images and forms I put together with the colour in the project “Your “Y our form is my creation”. creati on”. It does not belong to any an y particular ism or style; it stands for its own. It is process of meditation of a visual world. Visual art well-developed in Europe over five centuries, as per development and growth, it has up and down. Somewhere change takes place, we never know about in our life time but we w e walk near by.. by In April 2008 I travel back to India by road from Holland with an art carvan, On the Road of Indian continent I have exhibited work of 80 national in 10 indian cities Amritsar to Banglore under title SHOW YOUR HOPE with 80 questions around world, I have decided to travel with Vari ( pilgrimage) to have an experience of centuries old tradition. with sketch book and camera to celebrate Tukarams 400 years birth anniversary with his Palakhi Just now I have been finished walking with people and witnessed celebration of life of
Mankind. It is more than all words of Tukaram and others too. What an experience!. Not to tell but only to have. Bhaskar Hande
d¡{œH$ 2008
