Page 111 - Eye of the beholder

of his fecund imagination that together with his perceptions and interpretation of the subject was very personal and hence left open ended to be interpreted by the viewer. According to his daughter Jeroo, “He always wanted to grow as an artist and didn’t want to get stuck in the rut of one style for years. When people asked ‘what does this mean?’ his reply would be, ‘what you see is what it is’. He didn’t want to limit people’s imagination and was far ahead of his times.” His lively forms were achieved with minimum of means. Line remained the main protagonist carrying the burden of his emotions, narration, description and quasi abstraction. His line was textured, gently broken, swept across with dynamism producing forms both human and non human, it danced, caressed the forms sensuously or translated as geometric structures in an intelligent vibrant manner. The easy fluidity with which the line flowed from his brush or any other tool could be described as magical appearing as though breathed on effortlessly. Hence the line remained a marvel sweeping with a breathless verve and vigour capturing with simplification, minor curves, the structure, shadow suggestions and movement that gave rise to wonderful decorative patterns. Undeniably Chavada’s works have an inherent strong design quality. According to the artist, “What excites me is pure painting: line, colour, pattern and balance, which constitute the quintessence of the composition. I don’t care for subject matter, any subject is good enough. It is just a peg to hang your composition on and hence incidental”. In quest for artistic compositions, Chavada thus studied myriad subject matter and created a large corpus of works that to this day remains distinctly his own. This established Chavada’s unique position as a modernist unlike the academic realist artists who were his contemporaries and popular at the same time with their limited subject matter of portraits and landscapes.
The line in his composition was further reinforced by colour application that was equally individualized as patches of earthy tones or vibrant contrasting colours as oranges and blues that were heightened by textured sweeping broken lines. The essentialization of forms was Chavada’s greatest strength, as the minimal reduction of his process did not lose the character of his protagonists.
Chavada’s relationship with his brother-in-law Mulk Raj Ananda - Art Critic and Cultural Historian- resulted in a long and meaningful collaboration with the art magazine Marg. According to Nancy Adjania and Ranijt Hoskote, “Chavada was present across a wide spectrum of contexts and visualities. He acted as an illustrator for books on dance and anthropology, volumes of children’s stories and magazines. His portraits of dancers, musicians and others at large suggest a practice calibrated midway between salon and a gallery”. That was the breadth of his vision; and when public or private commissions came his way, Chavada researched the subject that he would be representing and would carry it out without any physical assistance be it a mural which he executed at Tata Institute, climbing on the scaffolding and working with same intensity as he would on a canvas.
105