Revisiting Veteran Artist A. A. Almelkar’s Works Through A Book That Resurrects His Legacy
· Free Press Journal
Abdulrahim Appabhai Almelkar, aka A A Almelkar, was an artist whose contemporaries like Hebbar, Raza, Ara, have been applauded more than him. But that never deterred him from his path – a path that he kept reinventing every few years. An optimist by nature, nothing, even natural calamities demotivated him. The book, ‘Almelkar: The Resurrection – Letters & Lines Of A Master’, quotes him in one of the chapters – ‘Everything burned. But my hands are safe. My faith is safe;’ (sic) He said this after the building he lived caught fire and his studio was burnt to ashes – everything including some precious works by other artists, his tools, and all his works. This was his level of optimism and faith in his own capability. He rediscovered himself after this accident and his style took a turn too.
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The book, ‘Almelkar: The Resurrection – Letters & Lines Of A Master’, has quite a few such anecdotes that trace the artist’s evolvement as a painter and the changing styles as he did so. Archana Khare-Ghose, who has edited this book, writes an essay in the book titled ‘Abdulrahim Appabhai Almelkar: A Decolonial Lens on Indian Art’. She says that while analysing the works of Almelkar she came closer to the idea of decoloniality in art. What’s intriguing is the way she uses Almelkar’s works to talk about decoloniality in Indian art.
Archana is also unbiased while writing her notes about Almelkar. She discusses his decorative style of work and pejoratives attached – from which she attempts to rescue him using quotes of experts. She mentions that while he was the contemporary of the great masters, he had a parallel career that was similar to some. She mentions that while he trained in western academic principles of painting, he alienated himself from them somewhere during his artistic journey and developed his own style.
Most writers mention the influence of folk, coastal village and Bengali art on the work of Almelkar. Dr. Rehman Patel particularly writes, ‘From 1950 onward, Almelkar developed a deep fascination for lifestyles of indigenous communities or the Adivasis. The intimate knowledge clearly reflected in his paintings and sketches.’ (sic) Dr. Patel’s minute observations about Almelkar’s paintings are valuable to the reader.
The last section of the book is dedicated to letters – Almelkar’s letters to his guru, Hiralal Khatri. The original Gujarati letters have been printed along with their English translations. This gives an insight into the steady growth of Almelkar as an artist and a human being.
This book is published by Gallery Silver Scapes and Dhoomimal Art Gallery.