Photography: Ishika Mohan Motwane
Jitish Kallat and I formally acquainted ourselves in front of his JJ School of Art degree exhibition painting at the Jehangir Art Gallery. He was 20 and I was 31. Standing before his large self-portrait—expressive as much as impressive—I emulated the boy in the painting who for some reason had a wrist-watch in his mouth! I took off my own watch, held it in my mouth and stood before the work. That introduction 20 or more years ago has grown into a relationship that has withstood rain and storm (as artist/gallerist) and turned into a friendship that I cher ish deeply.
While he was ambitious, Jitish was equally self-assured and confident of what he was doing and where he was going. Brimming with creativity, he seemed fearless in going forth and articulating ideas that were scaling new heights and scourging new grounds. If the city of Bombay was his leitmotif—he was able to trav erse its length and breadth with hoarding scale paint ings to life-size sculptures in the actual size and form of a water-tanker. He was able to respond to the history of Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (a local Mumbai city museum) with equal ease as the history of Vivekananda’s round table conference 108 years ago at the Art Institute of Chicago with Vivekekanada’s speech inscribed in LED on the grand-staircase of the institute. (The exhibition, due to popular demand, was extended to one year!)
Jitish Kallat truly represents the coming of age of contemporary Indian art. He became, in many ways, the icon of his time. Now, 20 years of practice as an artist marks his entry as a curator of the second edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Putting aside his artistic career for the past one and more years, Kallat has donned the mantle of curator with equal aplomb and is poised to launch into one of the biggest curatorial ventures India
has ever seen.
Text Shireen Gandhy