Neighborhood

The artist Piraji Sagara, who lived from 1931 to 2014, is one of the prominent names in the history of Indian modern art after independence (1947). He studied in Mumbai and opted to settle in Ahmedabad to practice art. He also spent his long career as teacher at School of Architecture. Sagara is known for his unconventional use of canvas. In this particular piece made in 1972, Sagara has made use of wood for creating his art piece as well as for construction. The surface has been designed with skillfully created wood relief, brass and iron nails as well as colored glass beads. Rather than simply treating the wood surface as a flat platform, Sagara directly relates to the wood’s characteristics. He incorporates architectural shapes through the raised reliefs in a grid-like way similar to floor plans, city buildings and patterns from weaving. The recessed and raised wooden squares and circular forms have holes filled with basic colors of colorful substances—bright yellow, dark red, white and some transparent beads inside the holes. The constant use of industrial iron nails and metallic staples along the outline contributes to an appealing smooth look of the final picture being shining. The lower part of the relief shows an enigmatic silhouette in burned black and stylized dots. Sagara is strongly inspired by folk ornamentation and vernacular use in Gujarat for his works, especially pictures of birds, ritual products and constructions. In this case, the organic round shape at the bottom is meant to contrast the strictly organized geometric composition above. One can see Sagara’s experience in architecture reflected in the spatial composition in the artwork. The sculpture is based on the concept of dynamic equilibrium of solid bodies and hollow spaces between them. The geometric units function like windows or jharokhas, inviting the viewer to look inside the object. The spatial composition is not flat; the negative space is not passive. The shadows produced through the raised reliefs will change depending on the intensity of the light, making the object live and dynamic. The sculpture was produced in 1972 when Sagara was at the peak of his creative activity, during which he improved his skills in working with reliefs. His approach corresponded to the general movement of modernism that appeared after gaining independence in India and consisted in blending of national traditions with contemporary trends in abstract art. Sagara’s production of sculpture from natural and burnt materials can be seen as an alternative to Western abstraction based on Indian handicraft, materiality, and geometry of space.