neo-tantrism, and modern art in india

8/18/2019 Neo-Tantrism, And Modern Art in India

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P. T. Reddy, Neo-Tantrism, and Modern Art in IndiaAuthor(s): Rebecca M. BrownSource: Art Journal, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Winter, 2005), pp. 26-49Published by: College Art Association

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3/25

Rebecca M. Brown

P. T.

Reddy,

Neo-Tantrism,

and

Modern

Art

in

India

P.T.

Reddy,

Moon

Landing

No.

2, I970,

oil

on

canvas,

28

x

24 in.

(71

x

61

cm).

Collection

of St.

Mary's College

of

Maryland, gift

of

Mr. Saul Rosen

(artwork

?

Estate of

RT.

Reddy)

The

July

1969

moon

landing

represents

a

canonical

moment

for

modernity.

For

the United

States,

it

meant

a

battle

victory

in

the

space

race

and

a

triumph

of

American science and

ingenuity.

P.T.

Reddy

(1915-1996),

an

artist

then

living

in

Hyderabad,

India,

saw

these

aspects

of the

moon

landing, certainly,

but

he

also

acknowledged

the

cosmic

importance

of

that

moment,

using

it

as a

springboard

for

a

series

of

etchings

and oil

paintings

on

the

theme

of

humans

on

the

moon.

Reddy's

series

reclaims

the

moon

landing

for the world

rather than

solely

for

Americans?fulfilling

Neil

Armstrong

s

for

mankind ?and

recenters

the

iconog

raphy

of the

moon

landing

away

from the

iconic

figure

planting

the

flag

in

the lunar

soil

(although

he

does

use

that

as

well)

toward

a

more

symbolic,

universaliz

ing representation

of the

unions

of

microcosm

and

macrocosm,

humanity

and

god,

the human

body

and the celestial

body. Reddy

images

this modern

moment

through

the

symbols

and

concepts

of

Tantra,

an

element of both Hinduism and Buddhism

focused

on

a

cosmology

of

union,

made

popular

in

the

1960s

and

1970s.

He thus takes the central

concepts

of

modernity?scientific

progress

and

inquiry,

humanity's

control

of

nature,

the

search

for

universality

through

abstraction?and

articulates them

through

his

personal

interpretation

of

the South

Asian visual culture

of

Tantra.

This

article

argues

that

Reddy's

use

of

Tantra allows

him

to

transcend

the

paradox

inherent

in

articulating

modern Indian

art. '

If

modern

art

develops

in

part

as an

avant-garde

reaction

to

a

norm,

then

those

so

outside the

norm as

to

be

ignored

by

it

cannot

participate

in

the

modern.

Furthermore,

if modern

art

relies

on

the

appropriation

of

the aesthetics of the

(usually

colonized)

Other,

then how

can

artists

in

colonized

or

formerly

colonized

contexts

make the

same

move?

If

one

is

already

the

Other,

to

whom

does

one

look

for modernist

inspira

tion

and self-articulation?

Reddy

must

work

within these

paradoxes,

and work

ing through

a

neo-Tantric

idiom,

he

creates

a

space

for

both

an

international

and

a

local articulation of

the

modern.

Thus,

Reddy

treads the

problematic

knife

edge

of the

modern,

teetering

between

looking

to

a

strand of

visual culture from

South Asia

(Tantrie

art)

and

creating

an

abstracted,

personal symbolic

vision?a

vision

that

attempts

to

speak

to

the

nation.

As

an

artist,

Reddy

can

be considered

neo-Tantric,

in

that

Tan

trie

imagery

offers

him

a venue

for

this

sort

of

bridging.2

He

does

not

escape

the

problematic

position

of

mimicking

the

moves

of

Western

modernity;

he

remains

within

the

historicity

of modern

art

history,

looking

to

the

primitive

in Tantra

in

order

to

build

the

modern

and

creating

a new

lan

guage

of

abstraction and

symbolism

in

order

to

participate

in

a

nation-centered

and

global-looking

modernity.

In

Reddy's

work,

we

see

connections

to

a

wide

range

of

other

neo-Tantric

artists,

including

G. R.

Santosh

(1929-1997),

S. H.

Raza

(b.

1922),

and

Biren De

(b. 1926),

and thus

he

serves

as a

good

entry

point

and

guide

to

the works under

this broad

rubric.

For

example,

his

moon

landing

series,

as

Iwill

elaborate

later,

relies

on an

understanding

of

a

geometric

symmetry

and

pattern

derived

from

Tantric

yantra

diagrams,

but deviates

significantly

from

that

source

to

develop

a

new

idiom

of

symbolic

representation.

Other works

explore

the

concept

of

unity

through

imagery

related

to mantras

or

cosmic

vibrations

and

sounds,

also central

to

Tantra.

Reddy

also

engages

in

dialogue

with

contemporary

life

and

politics,

as

27

art

journal

Many

thanks to P. T.

Reddy's family

and the

Teaching

Collection of Art

at

St.

Mary's College

of

Maryland

for

supporting

this research. Earlier

versions of

this

paper

were

presented

at

the

Royal

Ontario Museum

(2004),

the Association

of

Asian Studies Annual

Meeting (2003),

and the

South Asia Conference

in

Madison,

Wisconsin

(2002);

many

thanks

to

the audiences

at

those

venues

for their

input

and

feedback.

A

small

por

tion of this research

appeared

in

the International

Institute

for

Asian Studies Newsletter

(July 2003);

my

thanks

to

Kristy

Phillips

there

for

her interest

and

support.

My

students

at

St.

Mary's

and the

University

of Redlands assisted

me

in

completing

this

research and

thinking through

the

argument,

especially

Jacob

Lewis,

Richard

Warr,

and those

in

my

spring

2004 South Asian

art

course.

Thanks

also

to

Deborah Hutton

and

Jagdish

Mittal,

who

assisted me in

contacting

P. T.

Reddy's family

in

Hyderabad.

Padma

Kaimal,

Pika

Ghosh,

Samuel

Chambers,

and

Deepali

Dewan all read and

com

mented

on

earlier

versions of the

article;

with Art

Journal's

anonymous

reviewers,

their feedback

has

been

invaluable.

And

to

Adrian

Brown: without

my

father's

unfailing

support

of

my

academic and

life

endeavors,

this article

would

not

have been

possible.

1.

Reddy's

neo-Tantric idiom

represents

one

solu

tion

to

that

paradox;

other

neo-Tantric

artists

and

other

Indian artists have

navigated

this

paradox

in

a

variety

of

ways.

2. Other

artists

often

grouped

in

this

movement

have

resisted

the

label

neo-Tantric,

because

of

a

desire

not to

presume

to

be tantrikas

themselves,

but

also

because

they truly

did

not

see

their work

as a revival of Tantric art, as S. H. Raza

put

it.

Quoted

in

Geeti

Sen,

Bindu:

Space

and Time

in

Raza's

Vision

(New

Delhi:

Media

Transasia,

1997),

137. Neo-Tantra

for the

purposes

of

this

essay

does

not

assume

artists

are

practitioners

of

Tantra

or

even

trying

to

revive

Tantric

concepts

or

imagery,

but rather

that

Reddy

in

particular

and

neo-Tantric

artists

more

broadly

are

mining

a

par

ticular South Asian

visual

resource

for its

efficacy

in

carrying

their

contemporary messages.




4/25

28

WINTER

2005:




5/25

G. R.

Santosh, Untitled, 1973,

paint

on can

vas,

60

x

50 in.

(

152.4

x

127

cm).

Chester

and Davida Herwitz

Collection,

Peabody

Essex

Museum, Salem,

MA

(artwork

?

Estate of G. R.

Santosh,

photograph provid

ed by Peabody Essex Museum)

the

moon

landing

series

shows,

along

with

his Nehru

series

and other works

touching

on

poverty,

labor

movements,

and the social

changes

wrought

by

India's

Independence

in

1947.

Because

of

his

use

of

the neo-Tantric

idiom,

how

ever,

his

explorations

of

historical

concerns

such

as

these become

dehistoricized

and

abstracted,

as

I

discuss below.

Thus,

through

Reddy's

work,

I

argue

that

for

artists

struggling

with

being

both modern and Indian

in

the

1960s

and

1970s,

neo-Tantric

imagery

provided

one

solution,

indicating

a

path

through

the

abstraction/representation

bind and

retaining

both

a

universality

of

form

and

a

specificity

of

national

identity.

Neo-Tan

tra

Neo-Tantrism

is

less

an

organized

movement

than

a

conglomeration

of

artists

whom

critics

and

art

historians

see as

addressing

concepts

related

to

the renewed

interest

in

Buddhist and

Hindu

Tantric

practices

during

the

1960s

and

1970s.

Tantra

itself

evades

precise

definition,

as

scholars

of

religion

continue

to

disagree

on

its

boundaries

and

core

elements.

Current

consensus

draws

on a

set

of

texts

called

Tantras,

the earliest of which

was

composed

in

the

fifth

century

c.E.

Tantra

centers on an

understanding

of the

universe

as

the

concrete

manifestation of

the divine

energy

of

the

godhead,

which Tantric

practitioners

or

tantrikas

chan

nel

through

the

microcosm

of

the human

body

and

its

energies.3

The intercon

nectedness of

macrocosm

and

microcosm

and the

understanding

of

their

unity

together

form

a

core

element

of Tantric

belief.

The

m?ndala,

or

cosmic

map,

allows

practitioners

access

to

this

macro/micro

universe,

giving

a

place

to

the

various

energy-bearing

elements

of

the

world,

including gods,

demons,

and

ani

mals,

as

well

as

the

human

body

itself.

Indeed,

the

body

forms

a

crucial

part

of

Tantric

practice,

as

the

energies

within

it

parallel

macrocosmic

energy

(shakti).

Thus,

a

tantrika will

use

mantras,

or

sound

syllables

such

as

the

root

syllable

Om,

to connect

the body with that larger

universe.

The union of bodies

in

sexual

practice,

in

some

Tantric

contexts,

also achieves this

connection

between

microcosm

and

macrocosm.

These

generalizations

are,

of

course,

just

that?

certain

Tantric

sects

will

disagree

with

this

definition,

and like all

religious

systems,

Tantra

has

changed

over

time,

defying

easy

categorization.

Indeed,

the

history

of

attitudes toward

Tantra

in

scholarship

and

popular

culture has

itself

shifted

over

time,

revealing

as

much about the

moment

of

interpretation

as

about

Tantra's

meaning.

In

the

early

twentieth

century,

Western

scholars of India

saw

Tantra

as a

hidden form

of Buddhism

and Hinduism.

These scholars

thereby

revealed

their

inheritance

of

the

Victorian

attitudes

of

the

previous

century

that found

inTantrism

a

degradation

of

the

religions

of

India.4

Scholars assumed that

Brahmanical Hinduism based

on

the Vedas and

Upanishads

formed

the

core

of Hindu

religious

practice

and

that

Tantrism

was an

unwel

come,

radical

counterpart

with

a

consistently

marginal

status.

Thus,

scholarship

ignored

Tantrism

until the

1930s

and

1940s,

when several

writers

began

transla

tions

of

some

of the

core

Tantric

texts;5

their work

was

followed

in

the

1960s

and

1970s

by

studies

of

temples

and

other

artistic

remains

of earlier

Tantric

cults.6

Uncovering

something

hidden, then,

played

into

the

exotic,

esoteric

image

of

India

already

cultivated

by

colonial

discourse. The search for

knowledge

about

Tantra

came to a

head

in

this

period

in

part

because of the

greater

accessibility

29 art

journal

3. David Gordon

White,

Tantra

in

Practice:

Mapping

a

Tradition,

in

Tantra

in

Practice,

ed.

David Gordon White

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

2000),

9.

4. N.

N.

Bhattacharyya, History

of

the Tantric

Religion

(New

Delhi:

Manohar,

1982),

26.

5.

Jean

Filliozat,

?tude

de

d?monologie

indienne:

Le Kumaratantra de Ravana

et

les

textes

parall?les

indiens

tib?tains, chinois,

cambodgien

et

arabe,

Cahiers de laSoci?t?

Asiatique,

series

I,

vol.

4

(Paris: Imprimerie

Nationale,

1937).

6. Alice

Boner,

Principles

of

Composition

in

Hindu

Sculpture,

Cave

Temple

Period

(Leiden:

Brill,

1962);

Alice Boner, New

Light

on the Sun

Temple

of

Konarka: Four

Unpublished Manuscripts

Relating

to

Construction

History

and

Ritual

of

This

Temple,

trans,

and annotated

Alice Boner

and

Sadasiva

Rath

Sarma,

with

Rajendra

Prasad Das

(Varanasi:

Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series

Office,

1972);

Vastusutra

Upanisad:

The Essence

of

Form

in

Sacred

Art,

Sanskrit

text trans,

and ed. Alice

Boner,

Sadasiva Rath

Sarma,

and Bettina B?umer

(New

Delhi: Motilal

Banarsidass,

1982).




6/25

of Tibetan Buddhism that

came

with the exile of

the Dalai

Lama

from

Tibet

in

1959.

Coinciding

with

a

growing

Western

interest in

Asian

spirituality,

sparked

in

part

by

the

interaction of the Beat

poets

with Zen

in

the

19SOS,7

Tantric

schol

arship

soon

moved

more

into

the

mainstream

with

major

exhibitions and

publi

cations

on

Tantric

art?most

prominently

Aj

it

Mookerjee's

Tantra Art

and

Philip

Rawson's

Art

of

Tantra.8

Thus,

the

two

decades

of

the

1960s

and

1970s

mark

a

high

point

of

interest

in

the visual and

conceptual

aspects

of

this

hidden

form of

Hinduism and Buddhism.

More

recent

scholarship

has

reevaluated

the

hidden

quality

of

Tantra,

argu

ing

that

Tantra

enjoyed

mainstream

patronage

and

support

during

certain

his

torical

periods,

a

view

which

belies the Victorian

notion

of Tantra

as

degraded

Hinduism.9

Today

scholars

are

beginning

to

contextualize

the

very

idea

of

Tantra

as

hidden

as

part

and

parcel

of

Orientalism,

its concomitant

exoticization

of

India,

and

the need

for

a

debauchery

in

India

to

contrast

with

a

presumed

Victorian

reserved

quality.

Nonetheless,

in

the mid-twentieth

century,

when the neo-Tantric

art

move

ment

began,

the notion of Tantra as

embodying

these hidden

qualities

still

pre

dominated. Neither

Mookerjee

nor

Rawson

offers

a

historical

contextualization

of Tantric

art

forms,

so

in

their

writings

objects

from

diverse

periods

and

regions

inhabit similar

conceptual

spaces.

The

purity

of these

objects?as

Indian and

uniformly

timeless?goes unquestioned.

A

certain

philosophical

interpretation,

one

committed

to

the

purity

of

metaphysical categories,

therefore

undergirds

the

organization

of

these

texts on

Tantric

art.

This

interpretation

allows

the

objects,

symbols,

and

practices

to

transcend

time

and

to

present

a

unified

South

Asian

cultural

heritage.

It is

from this

image

of

Tantra

and

Tantric

art

that

P.T

Reddy

draws

his

imagery

and the

appeal

of

Tantra is

found:

a

universal-yet-Indian

conceptual

and

visual

well

from

which

to

drink.

An Indian Modern?

Modernity,

like

Tantra,

has

a

history,

sometimes

bound

up

with

the

representation

abstract

debate,

but

often

centering

on

notions

of

a

universal

aesthetic reliant

(ironically)

on

appropriated imagery

from

cultures

outside the

West,

a

valoriza

tion

of

originality,

and

a

belief

in

the

primacy

of

scientific

progress

and

the

quest

for

knowledge.

The

quest

to

understand

hidden Tantra fits into

an

overarching

context

of

modernity, dependent

on a

previous

history

of

colonial

power

in

the

subcontinent.

Historians and

literary

scholars have

long

been

aware

of

the

ways

in

which

modernity

relies

directly

on

colonial relations of

power,

which

supported

European

and American

growth

in

the

eighteenth

and nineteenth centuries.IO

Dipesh Chakrabarty

and others

have focused

on

the

ideology

of

progress

and

development

embedded within

modernity

and

pointed

to

this historicism

as

a

necessary

move

in

the

justification

of

colonialism

in

the

nineteenth

century.

Historicism

is

what

made

modernity

or

capitalism

look

not

simply global

but

rather

as

something

that became

global

over

time,

by originating

in

one

place

(Europe)

and then

spreading

outside it. Thus

modernity,

as

understood

from

this

perspective,

becomes

intertwined

in

and

inseparable

from colonialism:

the

colonial

space

articulates the

difference

between

civilized and

not-civilized

30 WINTER

2005

7. Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake

(Boston:

Shambala,

1992).

8.

Ajit Mookerjee,

Tantra Art

(New

Delhi,

New

York,

Paris: Ravi

Kumar

Gallery,

1966);

Philip

Rawson,

Art

of

Tantra

(London:

Thames and

Hudson,

1973).

9. See

White,

Tantra

in

Practice, 31-34,

and

many

of

the

essays

in

Katherine Anne

Harper

and

Robert

Brown, eds.,

Roots

of

Tantra

(Albany:

SUNY

Press,

2002),

in

particular Harper's

The

Warring

Saktis: A

Paradigm

for

Gupta

Conquests,

I

15-32.

10.

Ngugi

Wa

Thiongo,

Borders

and

Bridges:

Seeking

Connections between

Things,

in

The

Pre-Occupation of

Postcolonial

Studies,

ed. Fawzia

Afzal-Khan and

Kalpana

Seshadri-Crooks

(Durham:

Duke

University

Press,

2000),

I

19-25.

I I.

Dipesh

Chakrabarty,

Provincializing

Europe

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

2000),

7.

Chakrabarty

is

certainly

not

alone in this

critique;

see

Lisa Lowe and

David

Lloyd's

introduction

to

their

edited

volume,

The Politics

of

Culture

in

the

Shadow

of

Capital

(Durham:

Duke

Univeristy

Press,

1997),

1-32;

and

Gyan

Prakash,

Introduc

tion:

After

Colonialism,

in

his

edited

volume,

After

Colonialism:

Imperial

Histories and Postcolonial

Displacements

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

1995),

3-20.




7/25

by placing

the nots further back

on

the timeline of modern

progress.

Chakrabarty

frames

this

as

the not

yet

of

modernity's

historicist outlook:

colonial

regions

are

not

yet ready?for democracy,

for

industrialization,

for

the

concepts

related

to

abstract

art.I2

The difference that the historicist

reading

of

modernity

sets

up

between the

normative

European

modern and

any

other culture

attempting

to

articulate the

modern allows

for

another

movement

within late-nineteenth- and

early-twentieth

century

culture:

a move

toward the

primitive

as

authentic, timeless,

and

non

modern.

One

can see

this

impulse

toward the

primitive

encompassed by

the

Symbolist

movement

of the late nineteenth

century,

the

Arts

and Crafts

move

ment

of the

early

twentieth

century,

the Cubist

interest

in

formal and

spiritual

qualities

of African

sculpture,

and the Abstract

Expressionists'

interest

in

Jungian,

primordial

conceptions

of

universality

and

spirituality.

This

impulse

extends

to

those

in

Asia

as

well,

as seen

in

SoetsuYanagi's

aesthetic

writings

of

the

1930s

and Ananda

Coomaraswamy's

philosophical

arguments

of

the

1920s.13

Indeed,

modernism

arises

out

of

and

in

conjunction

with the

very

defini

tion

of this Other

as

developed

through

Orientalist discourse. That

is,

early

twentieth-century

modernism

in

Europe springs

from

nineteenth-century

definitions of the

Orient

as a

space

of the

Other,

suitable for colonization

and rich with

potential

material for

appropriation

to

a

modernist

context.I4

The

production

of the

Orient

and

its

support

of

the colonization

of

northern

Africa

and South Asia

by

European

nations

itself

produced

a

difficult

position

for

authors

of

nationalist

movements

in

these

countries,

who needed

to

overcome

a

positionality

as

Other while

simultaneously maintaining

an

identity

separate

from

the

colonizing

culture.ls

For

modernist

artists

of

Europe,

then,

non-Western

art

was never

far from

their

consciousness.

This

space

outside demands articulation within the

con

text

of

a

modernity

defined

as

progress

over

and

against

the either

static

or

at

best behind

state

of colonized

regions of

the world. We

see, then,

how

depen

dent the

concept

of

progressive modernity

remains

on a

group

of

cultures that

have not

yet

arrived

at

the modern.

In

the

case

of

art

history,

the

gap

between

the modern

and

the not

yet

is

reinforced

by

the

romanticization

and valoriza

tion

of the so-called

native,

primitive,

indigenous

Other

as a source

for

artistic

inspiration.

Stated

differently,

that Other

needs

to

be

not-(yet-)modern

in

order

for

the modern

to

utilize the aesthetic and

spiritual authenticity

of

the

native

for

shoring

up

a

space

of

Western

modernity.

This

dependency?the

need

to

freeze

the native

in

a

particular

way

in

order

to

support

a

vision

of modernism?leaves

no

space

for

modernity

in

a

contemporaneous

non-Western

context.

How

do those

artists in

the native

context

vis-?-vis Western

modernism

find

a

space

for

themselves?

How do

art

historians

attempting

to

engage

with

art

produced

outside of the flow chart

of the

history

of modern

art

place

these artists? And how

can

these

artists

be

modern

when

a

major

part

of the definition of

modernity

lies

in

the

use

of

an

authentic,

native

Other?

If the

concept

of

the modern

during

this

period

involved

a

debate between

abstraction

and

representation

and rested

on

a

prior

search

for

the authentic

in

the aesthetic

forms of

the

(usually colonized)

Other,

then the

understanding

of

Tantra

in

the

1960s

and

1970s

served the Indian

artist

well.

Seen

as a

universal,

3 I art

journal

12.

Chakrabarty,

49-50,

65-66.

13. Soetsu

Yanagi,

The

Unknown

Craftsman

(New

York:

Kodansha,

1974);

Ananda K.

Coomaraswamy,

Christian and Oriental

Philosophy

of

Art

(New

York:

Dover

Publications, 1956;

orig

inally

pub.

1942

as

Why

Exhibit Works

of

Art?).

14. Edward Said's Orientalism

is

the canonical

text

here

(New

York:

Vintage,

1979),

and for

art

history,

Linda Nochlin's

essay

The

Imaginary

Orient,

Art

in

America

71,

no.

5

(May 1983):

I 18-3

1, 187-91,

offers

an

exploration

of Said's

concepts

as

they play

out

in

nineteenth-century

Orientalist

painting.

15. For a discussion of the relation between

colonialism

and nationalist

movements,

see

Partha

Chatterjee,

The

Nation

and Its

Fragments

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

1993).

For

a

discussion

of

visual

culture

in

relation

to

the

nationalist

movement

in

Bengal,

see

Tapati

Guha

Thakurta,

The

Making

of

a

New Indian

Art,

Artists, Aesthetics,

and Nationalism

in

Bengal,

c.

1850-1920

(Cambridge,

U.K.:

Cambridge

University

Press,

1992).




8/25

abstract

conceptual

framework,

it

also

operates

as an

internal

Other,

hidden

out

side

mainstream

Indian

culture

and

exotic

to

Indians themselves.

Tantra

also

works

as an

ancient,

timeless

cultural

element,

something

that

European

mod

erns

valued

in

their search

for

universalizing

concepts

and forms.

Thus,

in

Tantra,

Reddy

and others of the neo-Tantric

movement

found

a

way

to

articulate them

selves

as

Indian

artists,

usually

as

the Other

appropriated by

the

West,

but also

as

modern

artists,

themselves

appropriating

traditional,

othered

forms

to con

struct

a

modern

Indian

aesthetic.

I

turn now to

Reddy's

various

forays

into

the

many aspects

of

Tantra

to

demonstrate how

his

work

navigates

the modern

Indian

paradox

in

four

ways:

through

the

use

of

the

yantra

form,

the

exploration

of

sound,

an

abstraction

of

writing,

and

in

relation

to

twentieth-century

Indian

events

through

imaging

Nehru.

Reddy's

Context

Reddy's

art career

began

when

his

high

school

art

instructor

noticed his

drawing

ability

and

encouraged

him to

apply

for a

scholarship

to

pursue

art. The

presti

gious

P.

J.

Reddy Scholarship

(which, despite

the coincidence

in

name,

was

not

funded

by

P.

T

Reddy's relations)

allowed

him

to

study painting

at

the

Sir

J. J.

School

of

Arts

in

Bombay

beginning

in

193s.16

During

these

years,

he

was

engaged

with both Indian and

European

art

movements,

most

notably

those

of

the

earlier twentieth

century

in

Europe.

Founded

by

the

British

in

the nineteenth

century,

art

schools

in

Madras, Calcutta,

and

Bombay initially

followed

the

Western academic mode

of

art instruction:

sculpture

from

plaster

casts

of

ancient

Greek

works,

painting

from

copies

of the

Renaissance

masters,

and other acade

mic

art

school

topics.,7

With the

rise

of the nationalist

movement

in

the late

nineteenth

century,

leaders

of

these

art

schools

shifted the

emphasis

from

Western

art to

the

study

and?as

they

saw

it?preservation

of

the

ancient

Indian

past. Copies

of

fifth-century paintings

at

Ajanta replaced

those

of

the

Renaissance

masters,

and

study

of

woodcarving

and

metal

casting

supplanted

examination

of

plaster

casts.

These

two

phases

reflect

a

shift

in

the colonial role

in

India:

from

the

spreading

of

Western

civilization

in

the

vein

of

Thomas

Macaulay's

Minute

on

Indian

Education,

to

the benevolent reclamation of what India

(with

the

assistance

and

urging

of the

colonizer)

cast

away

in

the

name

of

modernization

and

Westernization.l8

The

effort

to

preserve

various

vernacular

art

traditions

mirrored

similar efforts

in

the

West

centered

on

William Morris's

Arts

and

Crafts

movement,

whose main

proponents

in

India included the British-trained

geologist-cum-art

historian Ananda

K.

Coomaraswamy. Coomaraswamy

utilized

the

Arts

and

Crafts revalorization of

medieval and

Renaissance

art

in

order

to

celebrate what he

saw as

India's

spiritual,

craft-based vernacular

art

forms.19

Rather

than

dismiss

Indian

art

as nonart or as

monstrous,

this

shift

in

discourse

reclaimed

India

as a

space

of

so-called

authenticity against

the

postindustrial

space

of

Britain

and Western

Europe.20

By

the

time

Reddy

attended

art

school,

a

shift back toward

study

of

Europe

meant

his curriculum included

contemporary

European

artists.

Thus,

critics

of

the

time

drew

comparisons

between his work and

Henri

Matisse's

coloration,

citing

his

use

of the

Expressionists'

palette

while

simultaneously

celebrating

his Indian color

sensibility21

As

those

Western

artists had themselves turned

to

32

WINTER

2005

16. For

more on

the Sir

J. J.

School

of

Art,

see

Partha

Mitter,

The Formative Period

(Circa

1856-1900): SirJ. J.

School

of Art and the

Raj,

Marg46,

no.

I

(September 1994):

1-14;

Deepali

Dewan,

Crafting

Knowledge

and

Knowledge

of Crafts: Art

Education, Colonialism,

and the

Madras

School of Arts

in

Nineteenth-Century

South

Asia

(PhD

diss.,

University

of

Minnesota,

2001);

Yashodhara

Dalmia,

From

Jamshetjee

Jeejeebhoy

to

the

Progressive

Painters,

in

Bombay: Mosaic of Modern Culture, ed. Sujata

Patel

and

Alice Thorner

(Bombay:

Oxford

University

Press,

1995),

182-93.

17.These

cities

are now

called

Chennai, Kolkata,

and

Mumbai,

respectively.

I

use

the earlier

names

to

be

consistent

with

the

period

discussed

in

the

article.

18.

Barbara

D.

Metcalf

and

Thomas

R.

Metcalf,

A

Concise

History

of

India

(New

York:

Cambridge

University

Press,

2002),

81

;

T. B.

Macaulay,

Minute

on

Indian

Education,

in

Thomas

Babington

Macaulay:

Selected

Writings,

ed.

J.

Clive and

T

Pinney

(1835;

Chicago,

University

of

Chicago

Press,

1972).

19.

Coomaraswamy,

Christian

and Oriental

Philosophy

of

Art,

and

Medieval

Aesthetic,

Art

Bulletin

17,

no.

I

(March 1935):

31-47.

20. See

Jayanta

Chakrabarti,

Coomaraswamy's

Approach to IndianAesthetics: ItsRelevance

Today,

in

Ananda

Coomaraswamy:

A

Centenary

Volume,

ed.

Kalyan

Kumar

Dasgupta

(Calcutta:

Centre of Advanced

Study

in

Ancient Indian

History

and

Culture,

Calcutta

University, 1981).

See also Partha

Mitter,

Much

Maligned

Monsters

(Chicago:

University

of

Chicago,

1977).

21. Richard

Bartholomew,

untitled critical

essay

in

40 Years

of

P. T

Reddy (Hyderabad:

Andhra

Pradesh Lalit Kala

Akademi,

1982),

351-59.




9/25

primitive

and

folk

societies

for

inspiration

in

color

and

form,

Reddy's

Indian

palette

shouldn't have

surprised

the

critics.

This discourse of authenti

cation?Reddy

as

Indian?points

to

the

problematic

circularity

in

which

Reddy

and others found themselves.

Like the nationalist

shift

within the

art

schools,

India

was

somehow authentic and backward while

simultaneously

a source

of

modern aesthetics

and moral

grounding.

What

modernity

had lost

was

found

in

India,

and

so

the

position

of the

mid-century

Indian

artist

lay

in

that

impossible

zone

between the

critique

of

Western

industrialization

and the

escape

to an

authenticity

found

in

the

Indian

as

Other.

In

the

early

1940s,

with four

contemporaries?A.

A.

Majeed,

M.T.

Bhople,

C.

B.

Baptista,

and

M.Y.

Kulkarni?Reddy

formed

a

group

named the

Contempo

rary

Group

of

Painters

by

its

members but renamed the

Young

Turks

by

the

crit

ics

and

artists

of

Bombay.22 Together they organized

an

exhibition of their works

in

1941.

In

1942

the

Sir

J. J.

School

awarded

Reddy

a

prestigious

postgraduation

fellowship

in

recognition

of

his

painting.

However,

Reddy's

awareness

of

the

upheaval

around

him

caused

him

to

reject

the

fellowship

and

commit

his

ener

gies

to the

burgeoning

Quit

India

movement,

to

help

throw off the

yoke

of the

colonizing

British. The

Young

Turks

group

disbanded,

and the

following

years

saw

Reddy

move

into

the commercial

art

market,

working

on

film

sets,

in

print

ing

presses,

and

in

textile-printing

firms while he devoted

time to

the anticolo

nial

campaign.

In

1946,

he

left

Bombay

for

Lahore

in

order

to

pursue

jobs

with

film

companies,

only

to

be

forced

to

leave the

city

upon

Partition

in

1947.23

Like

many

displaced

by

the

Partition

of

India and

Pakistan,

Reddy

left

all

of

his

belongings, including

many

art

works,

in

his residence

in

Lahore,

only

to

find

out

later that

they

had all been

destroyed by

the

subsequent

tenants.

Thus,

much of his

early

work

is

known

only

through

his

narration

of

it

and

reproduc

tions

in

portfolios produced

in

1941

and

1942.24

Reddy

returned

to

Hyderabad,

married,

and

in

1948

started

a

furnishings

firm with

several

partners.

In

the

early

1950s, Reddy

turned

again

to

painting,

after

an

absence

of

a

decade.

His

full

return to

the Indian

art

scene was

marked

by

a one-man

exhibition

in

Bombay

in

1956.

During

the decade

of

Reddy's

absence,

the

Bombay

art

world had

matured,

in

particular

due

to

a

second

group

of

young

artists

formed

in

1947,

the

Bombay

Progressive

Artists'

Group.25

This

larger

collection of

artists

formed the

core

of

the

post-Independence

art

movement

in

the

region.

The

Progressives

looked

in

part

to

Europe

in

their

work,

rejecting

the earlier

generation's

move

toward

a

search for Indianness within

a

contemporary

idiom and instead

turning

to

an

international

modernism.

Thus,

by

the end

of

the

1940s,

many

of the

Progres

sives,

including

F. N. Souza and

Raza,

relocated

to

London,

Paris,

and elsewhere

in

Europe,

making

connections

with

artists

there such

as

Alberto

Giacometti and

Andr?

Breton.

The

period

of

1942

to

1956

saw

Reddy

left behind

in

the

Bombay

art

scene as

he devoted his

time

and

energies

to

participating

in

the

Quit

India

movement,

building

a

livelihood,

and

starting

a

family. Reddy

took

advantage

of

the

1950s

art

scene

in

Bombay

to

reeducate

himself

on

the

various

movements

of the

time.

Despite

his location

in

Hyderabad,

Reddy

became

very

familiar with

the work of

M. R

Husain, Souza, Raza,

V. S.

Gaitonde,

N. S.

Bendre,

and their

sources

of modernist

inspiration

in

Europe.26

Reddy's path through

the

art

world

in

India

reveals and underscores the

3 3 art

journal

22. 40 Years

of

P. T

Reddy,

391.

23.

Ibid.,

392.

24.

Portfolio of

Paintings,

Sculptures,

and

Drawings,

1941,

essay

by

C. R.

Gerard;

40

Drawings

of

P. T.

Reddy, self-published portfolio,

1942,

essay

by

R.

V.

Leydon.

Both

essays

are

reprinted

in

40

Years

of

P. T.

Reddy.

25. The

Bombay Progressive

Artists'

Group

is

central for

post-Independence

Indianmodern

painting

in

the

region,

with

members of

high

stature

both then and

now,

including

M. F.

Husain

and F.N. Souza. While

progressive

initially

meant a

left-leaning political

stance

(borrowed

in

part

from established

leftist

theater

and

literary

associations),

it

quickly

shifted

to

a

modernist,

formal

progressivism.

See R. Siva

Kumar,

Modern

Indian

Art:

A Brief

Overview,

Art

Journal

58,

no.

3

(Fall

1999):

18-19.

26.

During

his 1956

one-man

show

at

the

Jehangir

Art

Gallery

in

Bombay,

he

met

many

of

the

artists

of the

Progressive

group.

P.T

Reddy, My

Expression,

in

40 Years

of

P. T

Reddy,

30.




10/25

K. C. S.

Paniker,

Words and

Symbols,

1965,

oil

on

canvas,

59'/S

x

473/<

in.

(

151.1

x

121.3

cm).

Collection of National

Gallery

of

Modern

Art,

New Delhi

(artwork

?

Estate of K. C. S.

Paniker)

intersection

of

politics

and

art

for those who lived

through Independence,

Partition,

and the

early

building

of the nation. On

the

one

hand,

due

to

his loca

tion

in

Andhra Pradesh

and

his

minimal

travel outside

India,

Reddy

exists

on

the

periphery

of

the

international

art

scene.

His

work,

however,

addresses

cur

rent

local

concerns,

as

well

as

engaging

with

contemporary

art-historical

move

ments

in

India,

themselves linked

to

wider

concerns

of

the

art

world.

Reddy,

then,

resides

on

the border

between international

art star

and

local modern

artist,

and his work

illuminates

an

important aspect

of India's

relationship

to

the

world and

its

dialogue

with

thatworld.

By

the later

1950s,

when

Reddy

reentered the

Bombay

art

scene,

the drive

toward

participation

in

a

universal modernism

had

abated

somewhat.

Many

of

the

artists

who had

left

for

Europe

returned

to

India and

helped

to

reassess

the

direction

of

Indian

art

making

for

the

building

of

the

nation. In

southern

India,

the Madras

counterpart

to

the

Bombay Progressives

was

the

Progressive

Artists

Association,

led

by

K.

C. S.

Paniker

( 1911-1977).

While

it

started

in

a

post

Impressionist

vein

at

its

founding

in

1944,

this

focus

had

shifted

by

the

1950s,

34

WINTER

2005




11/25

and

in

the

early

1960s

Paniker

moved toward

a new

aesthetic

based

on

the

ten

sion

between

figuration

and abstraction.

The realization

that traditional

Indian

art

forms

such

as

murals,

miniatures,

and folk

painting

existed

between these

two

poles

served the modern

Indian

artist

well. Paniker

turned

to

this middle

ground

and,

guided

by

a

belief

that

modern

art

should

retain

a

national

flavor,

produced

his

Words and

Symbols

series of

the

early

1960s.

Based

on

Malayalam

script

from

the

southern

Indian

region

of

Kerala,

these

words and

symbols

could

not

be read

but

recalled

a

lost

past,

while

also

creating

an

abstraction

rooted

in

the

culture

and

history

of the Indian

subcontinent.27

Paniker 'swork did

not

occur

in

a

vacuum;

other

artists

were

also

realizing

the

power

of

this interstitial

space

between

abstraction and

figuration,

and

like

Paniker

turned

to

symbolism

to

explore

it.

This

moment

congealed

in

the

move

to

the

neo-Tantric,

and

artists

remade

Tantra

s

esoteric

symbolic language

into

a

contemporary

modernism for

India,

neither

abstract

nor

figurative.

Reddy

was

inspired

to

pursue

neo-Tantric

symbolism

by

his

wifeYasoda

Reddy's

book,

Harivamsha

inTelugu,

which he

illustrated

according

to

traditional

iconography.28

The

experience

of

painting

the

illustrations

for the

text

led

him

to

develop,

in

consultation

withYasoda,

a

personal iconography

related

to

tradition

al

Tantra but

not

merely reproducing

it.29

In his

yantra-inspired

works he

explores

issues

of

unity

between

the

macrocosm

and the

microcosm,

a

theme

which

con

tinues

in

his

egg-shaped,

more

abstract

works

often

based

on

sound

syllables

and

the

primordial

point,

or

bindu. His

more

directly political

works

draw

on some

of

these

same

symbols

but

employ

them

to

articulate

Reddy's

views

on

post

Independence

political

and social

developments.

M?ndala/

Yantra

Reddy's

m?ndala

works

vary

significantly

in

their theme

and

even

in

their

for

mat. Rather than drawing

on

full-blown, complex Tibetan m?ndala imagery,

Reddy

instead

looks

to

simpler

geometric diagrams,

or

yantras,

to

give

the

framework

for his

symbolic

language.

In

Sree of

1971,

Reddy

begins

from the

tra

ditional

Sri

Yantra,

with

an

architectonic

square

frame

housing

a

series

of

circular

lotus

forms,

culminating

in

the

center

with the

overlapping

triangles

of the

yantra

itself.30

He

adds

to

this

base

a

devanaqari

Sri

in

the

center,

reemphasizing

both

his title

and the

form

of the

yantra

he

utilizes.

Finally,

he

adds

what becomes

cru

cial

for his

yantra

works:

a

human form.

In

this

case,

two

figures

overlay

the

Sri

Yantra,

their

heads

opposite

one

another

at

top

and

bottom,

their bodies

joined

in

sexual

union

in

the

center.

Reddy

has

arranged

their

arms

in

a

circular

fashion

reinforcing

the lotus

form,

but

their

legs

are

not

symmetrical:

the

legs

of

the

bottom

figure

form

a

V,

with the feet

flanking

the

head

of

the

top

figure.

The

legs

of this

upper

figure

bend

at

the knees and

splay

outward,

echoing

the

two

direc

tions of the

triangles

of the

Sri

Yantra:

one

pointing

up,

the

other

pointing

down.

In

Tantric

symbolism,

the

triangles

themselves

serve as

representations

of

the

female

and

male,

with the

female

triangle

pointing

downward

and the

male

pointing

up.

The

overlapping

of the

triangles

in

a

basic

Sri

Yantra,

then,

indicates

the sexual

and

spiritual

union articulated

more

directly

in

Reddy's

piece.

Like

wise,

the Sri

spelled

out

in

the

center

of

the

image

would

have

been

unneces

sary

in

a

Tantric

context,

where the

iconography

of the

Sri

Yantra

is

widely

known.

3

5 art

journal

27. Achinto

Sen-Gupta,

Neo-Tantric 20th

Century

Indian

Painting,

Arts

of

Asia

31,

no.

3

(May/June

2001):

I

13;

K.

C. S.

Paniker,

Lalit

Kala

Contemporary Journal

12/13

(1971):

II.

28.

The

Harivamsha

is

a

Sanskrit

text

dating

to

approximately

the fourth

century

C.

E. and

appended

to

the

Indian

epic

the

Mahabharata. It

is

a

genealogy

of

Vishnu and focuses

in

particular

on

stories

of

the

young

Krishna,

an avatar

of

Vishnu.

Yasoda

Reddy

translated the

text

into

Telugu

for

circulation

inAndhra

Pradesh

and other

regions

where

the

language

is

spoken.

P. Yasoda

Reddy,

Telugulo

Harivamshamulo

(Hyderabad:

Sudharma

Publications,

1973).

29. P.T.

Reddy's

personal

statement in

Neo

Tantra:

Contemporary

Indian

Painting

Inspired

by

Tradition,

ed.

Edith

Tonelli

(Los

Angeles:

Frederick

Wight Gallery,

University

of

California,

1985),

36.

30. See the

Rajasthani

example

of the Sri Yantra

from around

1800

in

Philip

Rawson,

Art

of

Tantra

(1973;

London:

Thames

and

Hudson,

1995),

65,

fig.

43.

A

diagram

of the

Sri

Yantra

was

published

in

Ajit

Mookerjee,

Tantra

Art: Its

Philosophy

and

Physics (New

Delhi: Ravi

Kumar,

1966),

22,

pi.

7,

and

bears

great

resemblance

in form

to

Reddy's

piece. Mookerjee's

book

is

mentioned

as a

great

influence

on

neo-Tantric

artists of the 1960s

and

1970s,

in

Achinto

Sen-Gupta,

105-06.




12/25

P.T.

Reddy,

Sree, 1971,

intaglio,

16l?

x

16V?

in.

(41.9

x

41.9

cm).

Collection of

St.

Mary's

College

of

Maryland,

gift

of

Mr.

Saul Rosen

(artwork

?

Estate

of

RT.

Reddy)

Reddy

here

presents

the

geometric

forms

and

architectonic elements of

the

Sri Yantra more

fully,

perhaps

for awider

audience,

clarifying

the abstract

sym

bolism

of

union

for the

uninitiated viewer.

Moreover,

he

does

so

by

undermin

ing

the

neat

geometry

of

the Sri

Yantra,

for the human

body

cannot

conform

precisely

to

the circle

of the lotus

or

the

triangle

of the

yantra.

Reddy's

work

thus

acknowledges

a

certain

messiness in

the

translation

of

Tantric

form

to con

temporary

contexts

and

highlights

the

Tantric

emphasis

on

the microcosm

of

the

physical

human

body.

Sree

is

not

alone

in

taking

already-existing

Tantric

forms

and

articulating

them in

a

different

way.

Reddy's

ShreeChakra

(1979)

makes similar

moves,

but

eliminates

the

human

figures.3'

A

much

simpler

image,

the

Sri

now

becomes clearer

alongside

its

attendant

gestures,

which

form

the

shape

of

an

8 and

then

curve

around the

devanagari syllable.

The circular

gesture

points

to

the

second

half of the title: chakra

r

wheel.

Each

image

offers

differing messages

to

the

viewer:

the

simpler,

later

print

seems

to

flatten the

space

of

the

m?ndala,

whereas the

earlier

one

(with

all

of

its

complexity

and

overlay)

reinforces the

three-dimensionality

of

space

that

meditation

on a

yantra

or

m?ndala

image

would

normally produce.

While

these

two

images

are

directly

related

to

existing

yantra

orms,

Reddy

also

moves

away

from

given

iconographies

to

create

his

own.

Sree

Chakra

(The

Kiss)

of

1972

retains the

Sri

syllable

and

the

entwined

human

forms.

Framing

the

36 WINTER

2005

31. Published

in

Tonelli, Neo-Tantra,

37.




13/25

RT.

Reddy,

Shree

Chakra, 1979,

watercolor

and

tempera,

16%

x

16%

in.

(41.5

x

41.5

cm).

Collection of

National

Gallery

of

Modern

Art,

New

Delhi

(artwork

?

Estate

of P.T.

Reddy)

composition

with

a

similar

architectonic,

square

base,

he

uses

the

arc

at

the

top

of the syllable to echo the inner circle of the yantra,framing the kiss with the

word.

In

a

movement

away

from

transparency,

Reddy places

a

lotus

form

in

the

center

of

the

composition,

covering

the

mouth and

nose

of the heads that domi

nate

the

composition.

Two

nose

forms

hover

opposite

one

another

just

above

the interlocked

triangles

and bindu

in

the

center.

The

kiss

therefore

appears

to

take

place

somewhat

above

the central

point,

or to

put

it

another

way,

the central

point

resides within

the

body

of

the

lower

(male,

because

pointing upward)

figure.

The work becomes less

balanced than

Sree

r

Shree

Chakra,

just

slightly high

lighting

one

half of the

exchange

over

the

other.

The

Tantric

concept

of

bindu s

used here. Bindu

is

the central

origin

point

in

a

yantra

and is crucial

for

its

construction.32Thus,

the

image

can

also read

as

rep

resenting

a

kiss,

in

that what

we see

is

the

action

or

sensation

itself,

as

condensed

in

the

lotus

form

that takes

the

place

of

the bindu.

hile

maintaining

the

role

of

the human

form

from

his

Sree

piece,

Reddy

here allows that

human

form

and the

Sri

to

dominate,

shifting

the

center

of the kiss

into

the lower

figure, thereby

creating

his

own

reading

of the Sri Yantra

in

a

much

more

opaque

form.

Naming

the

image

The

Kiss

references Western

art

(Auguste

Rodin's

1880-82

sculpture,

for

example),

drawing

the

ostensibly

Indian

subject

matter

into

a

relationship

with

a

broader,

universalized

concept.

These

works?from

Sree

to

The Kiss?illustrate the

range

of

Reddy's

yantra-type

3

7

art

journal

32.

Rawson,

70.




14/25

P.T.

Reddy,

Sree Chakra

(The Kiss),

1972,

intaglio,

16

x

16 in.

(40.6

x

40.6

cm).

Collection

of

St.

Mary's College

of

Maryland, gift

of Mr. Saul Rosen

(artwork

?

Estate of P.T.

Reddy)

imagery.

Some utilize

forms found

in

Mookerjee's

1966

Tantra rt

publication,

combining

them

in

new

ways

but

remaining

close

to

traditional

imagery.

In all

cases,

Reddy's

work,

like

Paniker

's,

straddles

the abstract

/representational

divide,

one

of the central debates of

modern

art

during

this

period.

He

also looks

to

the

internal

Other of

Tantra,

considered

a

hidden

spiritual

element

by

viewers in

the

mid-twentieth

century,

and

appropriates

its

imagery

to

form

a new

aesthetic

for

Indian

art,

one

that

speaks

to

universal

concepts

such

as

birth,

origin,

root,

and

union.

In

making

this

move,

he echoes the

path

of

European

modernists

from

earlier

in

the

century

who looked

to

their

own

Others

in

order

to

find

a

window

into

the authentic

and

universal;

for

example,

one

sees

this

internal

Othering

in

Paul

Gauguin's

appropriation

of

provincial

French

subject

matter.

These

yantra

works,

however,

also

tie

themselves

inextricably

to a

South

Asian

aes

thetic

tradition,

something

that shows

Reddy's

attention

to

the tension between

an

internationalizing

Modern

(as

articulated

by,

for

example,

Le Cor busier's

architecture) and a local, regional modern. If Jackson Pollock drew on the ges

tures

and

rhythms

of

his

vibrant,

local

New

York

jazz

scene

(in

some

ways

both

a

local and

an

Other

space),

Reddy

here

works

through

the local Indian

iconogra

phies

and

concepts

in

order

to

achieve his

own

modern

idiom.

38

WINTER

200?




15/25


16/25


17/25

P.T.

Reddy, Beginning

of

Sound, 1971,

etching,

19%

x

\A%

in.

(49

x

36

cm).

Collection of St.

Mary's

College

of

Maryland, gift

of Mr. Saul Rosen

(artwork

?

Estate of P.T.

Reddy)

41 art

journal




18/25

P.T.

Reddy,

Form No. 3

(Sree),

1972,

litho

graph,

18

x

13

in.

(45.8

x

33

cm).

Collection

of

St.

Mary's College

of

Maryland, gift

of Mr.

Saul Rosen

(artwork

?

Estate

of P.T.

Reddy)

42 WINTER

2005




19/25

P.T.

Reddy,

Unknown

Script,

1972,

lithograph,

18

x

I

A

(45.8

x

35

cm).

Collection

of

St.

Mary's College

of

Maryland,

gift

of Mr. Saul

Rosen

(artwork

?

Estate of

P.T.

Reddy)

Reddy

underscores the

diversity

of

contemporary

India:

Malayalam

is

exotic

and

foreign

for

most

Indians who

speak

other

languages.

By

playing

with the

edge

of

exoticism

while

developing

a

language

of

Indian modernism

for

South

Asia

and the international

art

world,

Reddy

taps

into the

relationship

between moder

nity

and the Other

exploited by

many

Western

artists.

He

does

this, however,

from the side of the Other?a self-exoticization that reveals the tension within

Indian-modern

from

which he

develops

his

iconographies.34Thus,

rather than

merely

repeating

the

pattern

that

Western

artists

pursued

in

their

modernism,

Reddy's

work

must

necessarily

shift

that

pattern,

working through

the Otherness

of

Tantra

in

order

to

escape

from

the conundrum

of

being

himself both

Other

and

modern.

43 art

journal

34. For

exoticism,

writing,

and

its

relationship

to

more

contemporary attempts

to

articulate the

positionality

of

diasporic

art,

see

Faisal

Devji,

Translated

Pleasures,

in

Shahzia Sikander

(Chicago: University

of

Chicago,

1999),

11-15.




20/25

Worldly

Neo-Tantra:

Reddy,

Nehru,

and the Moon

For both the neo-Tantric artists and the

modernists,

the

tension

between

the

spiritual

and the

material

found

expression

through

symbols

that defied

partic

ular

iconographie

or

culturally

grounded

systems

and instead evoked

broader

universal

expressions

of

spirituality,

patterns

in

the

universe,

and

sense

percep

tion. The articulation of this

relationship

in

modernist

art

begins

much earlier

and dates

in

the

West

to

the

late-nineteenth-century

Symbolist

movement,

a

movement

often

called

on

for

comparison

to

the

neo-Tantric

movement.

Symbolism

sprang

from

a

literary

context

but

quickly spread

to

music

and

the

visual

arts,

directing

its

energies

to

both

spiritual

and

political

ends.35

As

discussed

above,

while

one

impetus

for the

popularity

of

Tantrism

in

the

1950s

and

1960s

was

the

politically charged

exile

of

the Dalai

Lama

from

Tibet and the

concurrent

publicization

of

esoteric,

politico-religious

Tibetan

Buddhism,

the literature

on

Tantra from the

1960s

and

1970s

dehistoricizes

and

depoliticizes

both

the

art

and the

philosophy

of

Tantra.

In

Mookerjee's

1966

Tantra Art and in Rawson's exhibition catalogues and

texts

of the early 1970s, this

political

engagement

was

elided

in

favor of

a more

metaphysical,

ahistorical,

and abstracted

understanding

of the

philosophy

and

imagery

of

Tantra.

Following Mookerjee's

and

Rawson's

texts,

most

neo-Tantric

art

exists

out

side

contemporary

histories

and

political

machinations?indeed,

one

might

see

the works

from

the

movement

and

their

popularity

as a

certain form of

escapism

from the

events

of

post-Independence

India.

Neo-Tantric

artists

generally

steer

clear

of

any

anchoring

element that

might identify

their

works

as

related

to a

particular period

or

historical

moment.

Reddy,

however,

seems

to

work

against

this

pure,

abstracted,

ahistorical

imagery by experimenting

with

images

of

India's first

prime

minister,

Jawaharlal

Nehru. But while he

inserts

a

historical

figure

into

his

works,

this does

not

result

in

a

direct

comment on

contempora

neous

worldly

affairs;

instead

neo-Tantra draws Nehru's

image

into

an

iconic

framework,

using

his

face

as a

symbol

of the

period

just

after

Independence.

Reddy's

paintings

of

him

belie

a

certain

nostalgia

for

this earlier

moment in

Indian

history,

one

imbued with

an

optimism,

or as

Salman Rushdie

might

say,

one

infected

with the

optimism

bug.36

Thus,

we

might

read Nehru's

image

as a

symbol

for

what,

by

the

mid

1970s,

had been lost

ofthat

first

positive

glow

of

Independence.

Indeed,

1976,

when

Reddy painted

these

works,

marked

the

height

of Nehru's

daughter

and

then-Prime

Minister

Indira

Gandhi's

Emergency,

a

period

of

martial

law from

June

1975

to

1977.

Spurred by

a

high

court

ruling

thatGandhi's

1971

election

was

invalid,

the

Emergency

included

extreme

antipoverty

measures

such

as

slum

clearance and forced sterilization

programs,

as

well

as

a

wide

suspension

of

civil

liberties.

Against

this

backdrop,

and with fears

rising

of

the

collapse

of India's

democracy, Reddy's images of Nehru can be read as an attempt to recapture

some

of the earlier

moments

of

hope,

perhaps

linked

as

well

to

his

own

work

in

the

Quit

India

movement

before

Independence.

Reddy's

celebration

of Nehru

is

formally

similar

to

his

yantra

prints

discussed

above. These

watercolors

illustrate

the

different

facets of Nehru:

as

philosopher,

as

power,

as

peace,

and

as a rose.

Each

image

uses

a

circular

neo-tantrism, and modern art in india

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