“Dissent and Discourse” – Exhibition of Artworks by B.M. Anand

KOCHI:
A collection of artworks by the unheralded modern painter and illustrator, Brij Mohan Anand (1928-1986), whose production railed against capitalism, neo-imperialism and nuclear warfare, the commercialisation of art and cultural subsumption, will be featured at an exhibition running as a collateral project to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB).
Award-winning director and cinematographer, Shaji N. Karun will inaugurate the exhibition, titled ‘Dissent and Discourse: the Art and Politics of Brij Mohan Anand’, at 12.30 pm on Wednesday (December 14), at Greenix Village Cultural Arts Centre in Fort Kochi. The  Mayor of Kochi, Soumini Jain will release a catalogue of the Delhi artist’s work, at the function.
The show will run until March 29, 2017 and remain open from 11 am to 7 pm daily
The exhibition, which delves into the notion of dissent and its importance in public discourse, creativity and progress, features evocative pieces in diverse mediums – 10 scratchboards, 10 scratchboard sketches, 3 sets of 13 drawings, one ink and watercolour on paper and a single oil on canvas, which forms the focal point of the show.
Curated by young researcher and writer Shruthi Issac, the exhibition pays tribute to a Modern Indian master, who for nearly five decades toiled in near-obscurity to initiate a dialogue on behalf of the subaltern through an alternate reading of the rapid technological and economic modernisation of India and its nuclear ambitions during the Cold War. Through it all, Anand sustained his passion for and commitment to, the role of an artist in society and to the philosophy that art should directly refle
ct and in the process, affect the modern world.
“The art of Brij Mohan Anand is the art of dissent. His is a distinctive voice, which challenged the prevailing cultural and political narrative in the India of his time. Anand’s scratchboards, sketches and various other expressions of opposition or non-agreement, many of which are showcased in the present exhibition, are particularly relevant today when there is a debate over the significance and the need to accommodate dissent within Indian art and politics,” Issac says.
“Unafraid of criticism, Anand addressed a myriad of political, social and cultural concerns: nuclear warfare, cultural indoctrination, sexual inequality, the role of art and the condition of the farmer and labourer in an industrial society. Unlike his contemporaries and other post-Independence artists who engaged primarily with the formal and metaphysical aspects of art, Anand’s work is a reflection of a developing India and presents an important story told of and from the periphery of modern Indian art-history,” she adds.
There are an estimated 1,500 surviving works by Anand – a collection of scratchboards, watercolours and sketches, posters, commercial illustrations for books, posters, newspapers and magazines. His life and works have recently been the subject of a meticulously researched book, Narratives for Indian Modernity: The Aesthetic of Brij Mohan Anand (Harper Collins India 2016), co-authored by biographer and writer Aditi Anand and art historian Dr, Grant Pooke with a foreword by Dr. Alka Pande.
“What remains of his oeuvre represents a rare and powerful documentation of India’s post-colonial history – from the upheavals of Partition and Independence to the continuing tensions of it’s transformation into a modern nation-state,” says Aditi Anand, who is also the Associate Director of the B.M Anand Foundation.
“The Foundation hopes to utilise the international platform provided by the Kochi-Muziris Biennale to finally shine the spotlight on the remarkable work of this underrepresented but important historical voice. In so doing, we hope to initiate an alternate discourse on India’s modernity,” Anand says.