Page 6 - Anjolie Ela Menon - Inner Vision

and discipline. Anjolie is an artist who has details. The painting has rich colours and depth
succeeded in preserving the authentic experience especially on the skin of faces and bodies.
of her youth. Like a child she indulges in play,
however almost making fun of her existential Not only does the painting truthfully represent the
anxieties. Passionate and audacious, she casual and rustic image of the common folk but
recreates—in her own space and on her own also conveys that modern Western culture has
terms—the lost world of childhood. Like a true become a part of Indian life.
Bohemian, she paints with her whole soul,
mobilising the full power of her imagination. She She focuses on the traditional aspects of formal
penetrates the secret recesses of memory where portraiture and even moreso on the development
the experiences and traditions of childhood await of her technique. Women in domestic, ill-defined
the alchemical process that will bring them to the settings, shown doing mundane jobs, the working
surface of her work, at the chosen moment, as a class, crochet table cloths, torn curtains, goats
fresh reality. Memories are never lost: they simply and the omnipresent crow in different settings
lie dormant ready to be put to use, when required, have become recurring subjects. There is a blend
and to enter into the creative moment. of spontaneity and intimacy in her portraiture that
make the works engaging.
Anjolie’s break with the canvas is not a deliberate
attempt to reject art, but, as with every Sometimes, the women’s eyes are deviating from
revolutionary advance, a rebellion against the the audience staring at the ground, showing her
aesthetic status quo. Anjolie does not repudiate nervous, shy and self-protected mentality. Apart
tradition, she simply cuts through it. Tradition for from the deception of the figure’s characters, it
her is a storehouse of material waiting to be used, may be an implicit representation of her poverty.
but the manner in which it will be used will be Despite that there is a sense of calmness and ease
different. in her eyes. More than just being splendid in the
comparison of colours, brush strokes, figures and
Anjolie’s portraiture of women is unique and clothing, Anjolie touches the spirits of the figures
striking. She is truly a painter of women, and transfers the abstract emotions to
alternately gracious and moving, knowing and coordinating concrete elements and rediscovers
simple, and always with an exquisite visual the invaluable worth of humanity and life.
sensibility. Not only does she give a marvellous
sense of the physique, the delicate relief and Anjolie’s nudes are warmer in palette and
dazzling tones of young complexities, she also treatment. Atmosphere and form are realised
gives a sense of the soul, all women’s inner through a softening of lines and tonal modelling,
musicality and bewitching mystery. Her figures are ultimately creating an image of the female body
not frozen over by layers of paint - they are that is naturalistic, graceful and sensuous. Once
animated and vivacious; singing out in a melody of she achieves this, she deliberately downplays the
colours, bright tones and all the vibrations of light. sensuousness by covering up the breast with a
thin muslin dupatta and adding other elements
Anjolie’s brush works like the scalpel of a surgeon, such as tables, chairs, kites, crows, goats etc.
gently crafting the ideal face she imagines. The
resulting image is one that conforms in the Anjolie also created a significant amount of
extreme to the beauty standards of Indian women. landscapes. Her husband who was in the Navy
She has elongated yet slim arms, a slender waist was transferred to various naval bases all over
with voluptuous breasts. Her facial features are India. They lived by the sea and often the table,
familiar but somehow cannot be placed in context. chairs and fabrics that were left out to dry, kites in
She is portrayed in a highly provocative and the distant horizons and crows on the table,
appealing manner with captivating eyes, sensual created a landscape by the sea which she
lips and porcelain skin that are rendered with reproduced. It was from here that her fascination
considerable realism and artifice. for chairs began and empty chairs kept coming
back into her paintings.
Through her adept and natural brush strokes, we
can see Anjolie’s accurate portrayal of the figure’s Anjolie’s jharokhas are a unique combination of
characteristics without excess description of paintings and found objects. She uses carved old
window frames within which she creates a and showed them at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai.
painting with small blocks. These fit into each
window but together look like a painting itself. She
uses her painterly skills to create an undulated
vision, in such a way that the paintings and
jharokhas are in a perfect balance. The paintings
in the jharokhas are intimate domestic scenes and
interior composition with women behind torn
curtains with partly exposed breasts, a child, a
parrot, a goat, a crow, a kite and various other
objects that compose an ordinary household. Not
only does the jharokha painting truthfully
represent the casual and rustic images of the
Indian masses, but also conveys Anjolie's
fondness for depicting common people in her
works. She says the jharokhas must have life and
vitality in them. It must have certain pathos and
warmth. The physical scale echoes the emotional
variety through bold compositions, appearances
and a manifestation of Anjolie's unnerving artistic
supremacy. The artist focuses most of her
attention on painting the eyes as she aspires for
the audience to experience a silent
communication with her subjects. The gaze that
occurs between the audience and the portraits
conjures a vagueness whether the audience is the
viewer or the ones being viewed.
After her husband retired, they settled down in
Delhi in Nizammudin and she set up her studio in
the Nizammudin Basti. The imagery of the Basti
keeps coming into her work. Goats, old men, parrot
sellers, the derelict surroundings and the people of
Basti become her subjects.
Anjolie has worked in a wide variety of mediums
starting with jewellery. In the style and manner of
miniature painters, Anjolie creates small miniature
portraits of 1 inch x 1 inch of women that she uses
as pendants with precious and semi-precious
stones, painted in deep colours with gold. These
pendants are unique to Anjolie and no other artist
of her generation has ventured into this kind of
creativity.
While in Chennai, Anjolie was very keen to start
painting. Unfortunately she did not find any
canvas or board and a friend suggested that she
paint a cupboard, which she did and a new genre
was born. So fascinated was Anjolie with the result
of the paint on the cupboard that she went to the
second hand furniture market and picked up all
kinds of tables, chairs, cupboards and other
objects. She painted about fifty of these objects
While working on her book, Anjolie saw images of
her own work on the computer and one after
another, the images came alive. From here, Anjolie
got the idea of creating digital works -
Pentimentos - where she juxtaposed images and
created a series of new works, which she partly
painted.
Glass Sculpture
Working with master craftsmen in Murano (Italy),
Anjolie created a range of chic glass sculptures
that had religious icons, Shivlings, Ganeshas,
Islamic calligraphy, Christian icons and a range of
bowls with Hindu scripture. The exhibition was
called Sacred Prism.
Anjolie was the first Indian artist of her generation
to work in the Kitsch genre. She wanted to bring
calendar art into the mainstream and she created
an exhibition where she used gold embossed
printing which she cut out from her Diwali cards.
The exhibition was called Gods and Others and
was created in the Raja Ravi Varma style. She
decorated her subjects with kitsch elements and
also used gold paint and foil.
The art world is not for the faint hearted. Anjolie
proved she could excel with decency and the rare
quality of unshakable integrity. She has had the
attention of top collectors and gained their
confidence by being a consummate professional.
She is strong but never forceful and has stood her
ground and created art that very few artists from
her generation have ventured into. She is an
impeccable perfectionist as well as a modest and
forgiving friend. The Warhol-ian red lipstick and
the ever present twinkle in her eyes is as
irresistible as her quick and generous smile. She is
an amazing cook, and sometimes I tease her about
whether she is a better cook or better painter. She
is also an amazing packer, having moved house
over 30 times during her husband’s Navy tenure.
Above all she is a great human being, someone
one can go to for advice on the most difficult of
situations. I have known Anjolie for over five
decades and she has truly been an amazing
person. Our friendship has been pure, lasting and
true.
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