How to put a face to history

He had to be clad in white, and look calm and contemplative.

At most, he could hold a brush and a palm leaf manuscript.

That was the brief veteran art ist V T Kale got from the seer of a Chitradurga mutt who was commissioning a portrait of Basavanna, the 12th century poet-reformer. Kale's research included a careful reading of history books and vachanas (pithy verses) to get the contours of Basavanna's body and face right. But the challenge was bringing out Basavanna's multiple identities -statesman of Bijjala, poet-philosopher, and social reformer? “It was difficult,“ says the 83-year-old artist.

The painting, completed in 2005, remains one of the most popular images of Basavanna. So popular that when the state government recently decided to put it up along with portraits of Gandhi and Ambedkar in all offices, they initially didn't bother crediting Kale. Images of public personalities from a bygone era seem to have a life of their own. And artists have a tough time capturing in bronze and acrylic the real and imagined features of Basavanna, Kempe Gowda I,

Kittur Chennamma

, Sangolli Rayanna and other personalities as envisaged by political parties and identity groups.

For one, there are no photographs to fall back on. “In the 12th century, people were not in the habit of making portraits of themselves. So, I had to imagine Basavanna's character, his contribution to society and politics,“ says Kale. He did at least 10 sketches before the mental picture became clear enough for him to start the painting. B C Shivakumar, whose Kempe Gowda busts and statues gaze down at Bengalureans from Lalbagh, VV Puram and Gavipuram, says the first one took him a year. “I studied the history of Kempe Gowda and the folk songs about him,“ says the artist. The first one was commissioned by Kempegowda Nagar residents. At the

Gavipuram

signal, the city's founder stands holding an unsheathed sword, one foot firmly on one foot firmly on a rock. By the time the next commission came from Vokkaligara Sangha in VV Puram, the local chieftain who is supposed to have carved out Bengaluru as his capital in 1537, was a swashbuckling figure on horseback.

These statues and portraits are not just about assert ing the identity politics of those who commission the works.

“They align public spaces with histori cal and mythical memories,“ says Chandan Gowda, sociology professor at Azim Premji University .

But memories can be tricky. Delhi based sculptor Anil Ram Sutar, who is creating the mam moth Sardar Patel 'Statue of Unity' and the costly and controversy ridden Shivaji statue off the Mumbai coast with his fa ther Ram

Vanji Sutar

, says such projects re quire a tough balancing act. Patel's images are available but he had to be the `Iron Man' when it came to the statue. Shivaji was tougher as he is perceived as a chivalrous king, riding a horse with a sword in hand.“People worship him for those qualities.Eventually, one has to bring to the sculpture what people believe about him and what has been painted until now,“ says Sutar.

Public perception often is defined by popular culture. Vishal

Kavatekar

, an upcoming sculptor and guest faculty at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, remembers hearing a senior artist being asked to create the same costume worn by actor Rajkumar for a statue of 16th century emperor Krishnadevaraya. “Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan have played many historical figures in their movies and people sometimes want to see a resemblance to the actors in the statues,“ says Kavatekar.

Apart from looking at existing templates from descriptions in literature to historical movies, some artists take creative liberties. “They might make the skin complexion fairer or the body more sensual or muscular,“ says Gowda.

There are times when historical inaccuracies are called out. There is an ongoing debate about how Kempe Gowda's appearance has been slowly altered to suit changed sensibilities -from a figure with folded hands to one fiercely wielding a sword. Kavatekar says many complained that the founder's statue in front of the BBMP office at Corporation Circle, one of the oldest in the city, suffers from a `Rajkumar look' mainly due to the elaborate kurta-pyjama outfit.

Gowda says creative risks are fine but when the images are for public circulation, the motive of art shifts. Bengaluru-based artist N Shivadatta says he made 1,400 sculpture mementos of freedom fighter and queen Kittur Chennamma in a few days to be distributed at the Vishwa Kannada Sammelan in 2011. “The pressure to flatter and not offend the feelings of those from a particular community is very high,“ he says.More so because these art works create a public image for a figure who may have just been a name.

Kale is non-committal about such controversies. But he insists that the artist has to study the character of the historical figure, and his life and times. “The artist should meditate on the subject and with sadhana (practice), art will get better,“ he says.

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