Laxman Pai: The man who put Goa on the art map

Ninety-five-year-old Padma Bhushan awardee Laxman Pai painted until recently, using his walker to move around the house until his death. He advocated the Covid-19 vaccine but didn’t live to take the second dose. He passed away on March 14.Speaking to TOI after taking the vaccine less than a fortnight ago, Pai had said he wasn’t afraid of injections. “I didn’t feel a thing. If I can do it easily, then you all can also do it,” he had said.Pai who served as principal of the Goa College of Art from 1977 to 1987 returned to his home state at the ripe age of 90. He had told TOI in an exclusive interview in 2016 on his return to Goa that he stopped labelling his paintings to allow people direct communication with art. “I want people to enjoy it and find their own image, not necessarily the image of the artist,” he had said. medium81512626Born in Margao, he first handled the paint brush and colours at his maternal uncle Mauzo’s photography studio and also contributed illustrations for handwritten magazines edited by Manohar Sardesai.It was a time when Goan artists Dinanath Dalal and R S Mulgaonkar were earning very well and Pai’s parents were convinced it was a lucrative profession. They sent him to Sir J J School of Art to pursue a diploma in art and painting.He joined the Goa Liberation movement during his final year in 1946, offering Satyagraha outside the Margao police station and got arrested for it. He recalled his swollen hands after the beating he received in the lock-up but was soon told to get out since he was still a minor.Pai said he wasn’t a member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group founded by K H Ara, F N Souza, S H Raza, M F Husain, H A Gade, S K Bakre and others but participated in their activities. His association with the group didn’t go down well with J J School of Art where he was now appointed as a Fellow, teaching diploma students. medium81512708When he was demoted to teach grad class and protested, he decided it was best he left India. “It was offensive. I wrote a letter against the dean and I was called to his office and asked to withdraw it, failing which I would be expelled. I decided to pack up and show my strength abroad. I had a revolutionary mind at the time,” he had told TOI.Pai then wrote to the late S H Raza in Paris and told his parents he was going there for further studies. “Raza made all the arrangements for me, enrolled me in art school and got me a student’s card which I used for 10 years,” he had said.To this day Pai has held more than 100 solo exhibitions in Paris, London, Munich, Stuttgart, Bremen, New York, San Francisco, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, New Delhi, Bombay, Kolkata and Goa. Though he was never formally a member of the Progressive Artists Group of then Bombay, he was the last of the Goan artists of the movement. large81513137His paintings are treasured in several private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art-Paris, New York Public Library, Berlin Museum, Ben & Abbey Grey Foundation (Los Angeles) National Gallery of Modern Art- New Delhi, Punjab, Chennai and Nagpur museums.“There has to be an end to some adventure,” he says, when asked why he left Paris for Delhi after 10 years. medium81513178He was principal of Goa College of Art from 1977 for a decade, and so most of today’s prominent artists in Goa have been shaped seeing his works. According to well-known Goan artist Nirupa Naik, “His paintings have a unique character, and are such that even laymen would like them. He created his own form giving the female form to the sea and the coconut tree, among others.”The Goa College of Art complex at Altinho was built under his guidance. He would have preferred if it was situated at the present Kala Academy campus so the visual and performing arts would be together but Pratapsingh Rane told him it would be too crowded. “I told architect Sarto Almeida that I wanted the complex to have no compartments and no rooms so that the students of grad class would be free to watch them at work. I believe that colleges can only teach you the grammar. It’s up to an individual to use his inborn instinct for art to become an artist.” large81513933He received several national awards and served on the board of studies (Painting) Bombay and Goa University also on the Executive Board of Lalit Kala Akademi and ex member general council of Lalit Kala Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi.When he heard that an art gallery was proposed at the Adil Shah palace, Pai had offered his paintings to the government on the condition that money would be kept aside to preserve them, refusing to give any of his works without anything in black and white.boxcontent medium81513217The colourful life of Pai- Pai graduated from the JJ School of Art in Mumbai, where he pursued a diploma in art and painting. He later served as a fellow at JJ School, teaching diploma students- During his final year at JJ School, in 1946, he joined the Goa Liberation movement, offering satyagraha outside the Margao police station and getting arrested. He was later released as he was a minor- Pai served as the principal of the Goa College of Art from 1977 to 1987- Pai had an inborn instinct for music, playing the sitar and bansuri himself, he interpreted music in visual forms. He would choose one raga from each thata, play it on the sitar at night and record it. The next day he would attack the canvas with the same raga playing as background music- A disproportionate amount of his work was inspired from all things Goan, be it 'Shigmo' or the process of feni-making. According to Goan artist and curator Rajan Fulari, 'Goenkarponn' (the Goa song) can be seen in his work from the beginningInputs: Gauree Malkarnekar