Priceless art in ruins at Chitrakala Parishat

Priceless art in ruins at Chitrakala
Deccan Herald

Five paintings, including one by the internationally acclaimed artist Svetoslav Roerich, ‘Raya Bogdanova’, have been damaged due to “weathering” and “excessive rain”.

This year’s rain not only wreaked havoc on the people and property in the City, it also took its toll on invaluable heritage and works of art at the Chitrakala Parishath (CKP).

Five paintings, including one by the internationally acclaimed artist Svetoslav Roerich, ‘Raya Bogdanova’, have been damaged due to “weathering” and “excessive rain”.

The 137.5 x 88 cm Roerich painting dated 1944 is chipped at three places and has developed wrinkles at the bottom.

Letter to INTACH

In a letter dated December 1 this year, CKP curator Anupama C requested Indian National Trust and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Director S Subbaraman to take up immediate restoration work on the five paintings, two of which have already been sent to the trust. These are from the folk art gallery and belong to the H K Kejriwal collection. One is ‘Jom Pat’, a Bengal folk painting in vegetable colours measuring 52.5 x 16.25 inches dated 1930, and the other is ‘Folk tales of Phad’, measuring 110.5 x 74.5 inches.

Both paintings have been severely damaged due to “fungal growth because of excessive humidity”. Their worth, says Mr Kejriwal, is invaluable.

“They are not available anymore,” he adds. Mr Kejriwal is an industrialist, art collector, founder and permanent trustee of the CKP. Apart from the five paintings listed for restoration, he alleges, “two priceless paintings, one by Robert Raushenberg — one of the 200 greatest contemporary artists of the world and the other by Deviprasad Roy Chowdhury are completely damaged. Both were donated by me”.

Cracked walls

As for Roerich’s painting, CKP Secretary D K Chowta says when the painting was chipped when it was given for exhibition. “The wrinkles, however, are due to weathering,” he says. Besides the paintings, the walls in most of the art galleries have developed cracks with the result that some of the paintings had to be brought down to save them.

Speaking to Deccan Herald Mr Chowta said in the last two years, the executive committee has spent Rs 2.28 lakh on plastering of walls, waterproofing of the roof and building of the ledges. “We have spent Rs 76,000 waterproofing the roof of the folk art gallery alone,” he says.

Sources in CKP say the leakage is due to “faulty” construction.

“The roof is flat and there are no ledges,” one source said. “They should have paid attention to all this while constructing the galleries, most of which are 10 to 15 years old.” While the Mysore Art Gallery was inaugurated last year, the Folk and the International Art Gallery were launched in 2003.

Mr Kejriwal, who has donated 300 sculptures and 250 paintings to the folk and international art galleries, says he has repeatedly been writing to the executive committee members about the “deteriorating condition of the galleries” but to no effect.

“I have written several letters to the committee saying that if immediate measures were not taken, we would lose our precious heritage forever but nothing has been done so far. It is gross negligence of a collection that is not available elsewhere, not even in our national museum,” he says. The paintings donated by Mr Kejriwal belong to the period between 1830 and 1995. Meanwhile, Mr Chowta pleads that the Parishath is strapped for cash. “We recently invited INTACH to advise us on restoration of the walls and they recommended humidifiers for all the galleries.

Restoration cost

A conservative estimate of the costing is from Rs 3 to 4 lakh. The CKP is self-funded and we are just about able to earn enough revenue to meet our annual expenses of around Rs 42 lakh.

“The salaries here are at par with the government salaries though earlier they were half of what is given now,” he says.

Lack of funds or sheer negligence? Whatever the reason, the victims are the mute, priceless heritage of the country. Should we wait and watch them disfigure and disappear?