It was one of the most celebrated art shows in the Capital in the 1980s. The art frat was in full attendance and among them was Anupam Sud. While guests appreciated the work of the Baroda-based artist KG Subramanyan at the show,Sud,a veteran printmaker from Delhi had a thought: random sketches were also works of art that could be exhibited. I had several in my studio, recalls the 67-year-old,who would begin to organise these in a file. The works are now a part of an exhibition titled Preparatory Assertions: Notes from Sketchbooks currently showing at the gallery Latitude 28. Sud,who was among the first women artists in India to take up the laborious medium of printmaking,tells tales behind some of her significant works. She looks at a page with an image of a pied piper and points out how the 1999 work led to a larger canvas. Making sketches is like practising before a final match , says Sud,adding that most of the works began with penning her thoughts on invitation cards and scraps of paper. A 2003 watercolour shows her paternal aunt admiring herself in a mirror; another nude is painted on rice paper. I had brought rice paper from China and was experimenting with it. A Nepalese woman modelled for me,but when I completed it,I felt the colours smudged and I crumpled it. Next morning,I realised its not bad, says Sud. Another instance is about an untitled mixed media on paper,with four nudes standing tall against a backdrop with dispersed brush strokes,was painted after she saw one of her male students dancing nude in the rain. He was a little eccentric, recalls Sud,who taught at College of Art,Delhi,for more than 25 years. I was the only woman faculty member once, she states,adding that even her peon was bullied by his colleagues. He was told tu aurat ki ghulami karta hai, says the realist who explored social concerns and gender relations in several of her works. If in Draupadis Vow,Draupadi became a metaphor for a modern woman who faces the dilemma of putting her body on sale,in the triptych The Ceremony of Unmasking,she suggested that while men continue to mask their feelings,a woman is bare. The current exhibition also has her Jam and Pickle series,where Sud captures female forms inside bottles. Women are supposed to add glamour to anything,from a family wedding to a professional event. They are thought of as jam and pickle,which add flavour to food, she states,adding,But I was never a feminist,I just depicted what I saw, she says. The exhibition at Latitude 28,F-208,Lado Sarai,is on till December 12. Contact: 46791111
