Mohan Samant
By Archana Khare-Ghose
In this year of centenaries vital to Indian modern art, a name that was almost forgotten is that of Mohan Samant (1924-2004), the Bombay-born artist who made New York his home and was an important member of the second generation of Progressive Artists' Group, along with V. S. Gaitonde and Krishen Khanna. In fact, but for his centenary, chances are that Samant may have continued to remain glorious in his artistic practice on the sidelines of all the upheavals that mark the Indian modern art scene today.
His centenary exhibiton, 'Magic in the Square,' which opened recently at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in New Delhi, therefore, is one of the most seminal exhibitions of this calendar year anywhere in the country. It retrains the spotlight on an artist, who for various reasons, largely remained outside the exhibitio circuit in the land of his birth, especially after premanently making New York his home in the 1960s, even though he never personally severed ties with it.
It was not uncommon among his generation of Indian modern artists to relocate to important art capitals abroad but unlike S. H. Raza, and F. N. Souza, for example, Samant remained withdrawn from the Indian exhibition scene, especially until the 1990s, even as he continued to court success on the international sstage. This has resulted in near total loss of his presence in the minds of art lovers in contemporary India.
'Magic in the Sqare' carries enormous weight as it brings a rare opportunity to see a sizable number of works by an artist who has been famously described by cultural theorist Ranuit Hoskote as "the missing link in the evolutionary narrative of contemporary art of India."
