Page 11 - Anjolie Ela Menon - Inner Vision

She then had the opportunity to travel to New York wash technique that would later influence Once the artist moved back to India, she got should be in public spaces. These new monuments
in the year 1959 and has often stated how Anjolie’s signature. In the book Women Who Dared, engaged to Indian Navy Sub-Lieutenant Raja of our times are the patrons of great art.”
impactful that journey was for her. During this Menon is noted as saying, “Toledo’s dream-like Menon, a childhood friend. She also took up
time, she not only bore witness to the vast and watercolours had transparency and were full of teaching at Lawrence School Lovedale during this This first mural for the Lucknow Secretariat was
diverse art collections of several renowned hidden light. The technique I have finally time which required her to take up residence in the created in 1963 and was followed by a
museums and galleries but was able to absorb the developed, though in oils on a hard surface, Nilgiri Hills. While her time in the hills allowed her to Russian-themed large-scale work for the Birla
vibrant culture of Harlem. It resulted in a series of certainly draws inspiration from that translucent create with freedom and release her creativity, she House in Mumbai. She then went on to execute a
paintings she created after being invited by Edgar finish to which I added the patina culled from found that teaching would stifle her personal mural for the Fort Aguada Taj Hotel in Goa,
Kaufmann Jr from the Museum of Modern Art to ancient frescoes. Though we had no common growth as an artist. Post her marriage in 1962, depicting Vasco de Gama. The triptych features
reside in Fallingwater, a house (now converted into language in which to communicate, there was a Anjolie left the school to move to Mumbai and the explorer surrounded by shields and sailing
a museum) built by Frank Lloyd Wright. commonality in our approach to painting and I conducted a solo exhibition with Alliance ships. This led to her being commissioned yet
think we influenced each other greatly, also Francaise the following year. She hosted several again by the Taj Group to create another mural for
Upon her return to India, the French Government sharing the restless arrogance of extreme youth, such exhibitions following this, including one show their Haveli restaurant in New Delhi in 1978. Using
awarded Menon with a scholarship to study at the having been much feted in our respective of her watercolours made during her overland trip bits of her fresco training, the artist built a
Ecole Nationale de Beaux Art in Paris. Living on a countries at a young age.” through Europe and Asia. This is her only known beautiful ode to decoration typical of the Mughal
sparse stipend and trying to prove herself among exhibit of works in watercolours to date. era with the patinated surfaces and colours she is
other accomplished students, the artist worked Her incredible use of colour, creating multiple known for.
tirelessly. While life was arduous and her lifestyle layers of oils over time to achieve a patina-like She moved to Lucknow when her husband went
frugal, her paintings reflected a certain optimism, effect, has given her the stature of being a out to sea for work, and following the birth of her One of her most prominent works in murals is one
and her signature melancholia would show up celebrated colourist. Speaking of her use of colour, son, she was inspired to create a series of 1,200 that she executed for New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi
later. She ended up graduating in 1961 with she once said, “I hardly draw. I think in colour. Its pottery works in various glazes and designs that International Airport. Resting in the VVIP lounge,
‘Premier Mention’, an accolade extended to a few depth or intensity, translucence or opacity form were exhibited in a museum in the city. Her first the work depicts the Lord Buddha in various states
students. the nuances of my whole creative output. It is with mural followed, commissioned by the UP State of meditation. Another of Menon’s notable
colour that one sings, with colour that one Secretariat. This would be monumental to the large-scale projects was the large train station
Her time here was also massively influential in her plummets the depths. When I dream I see colour... oeuvre she built in the years to come as the mural scene created for the Kolkata Metro at the
works as she was introduced to Byzantine and the overlaying of harmony, discord, syncopation...” would not only allow her to use her training as a Esplanade station. Executed in 10 panels on
Romanesque art on her travels through parts of ‘Fresquist’ to pay homage to Lucknow’s Islamic fibreglass in 1989, the painting showed everyday
Europe and West Asia. Witnessing the cave Menon chose to return to India by road, along with architectural wonders but also help her discover scenes and people on a railway platform. She
paintings of Italy, the Romanesque churches of her friend Shama Zaidi, first visiting Greece, then her love for masonite and employing ink-wash would go on to create several other noteworthy
France, and the Byzantium spread over Greece Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Iran, among effects using oils on it. It would go on to become murals, including one for the Modi House at Amrita
deeply moved her. Medieval Christian art elements other Western Asian countries. She would also something that Anjolie would continue to be Sher-Gil Marg and another for the Welcom Group
can be seen in her figurative works to this day as gain inspiration from this journey, doing a series indelibly associated with. in Baroda. Both of these were inspired by different
the subjects feature elongated limbs and an that chronicled her 4-month-long journey over regions, the former dealing with South Indian
averted stare with hollow eyes in the style of land in splendid intense watercolours, the only Menon trained in the art of fresco at Ecole Des subjects and the latter depicting market scenes
Modigliani. This, combined with her personal evidence of her work in this medium. These Beaux Arts in Paris, learning the painstaking and activity of Gujarat.
experiences of living in France and seeing a vast sketchbooks featured passing landscapes with process of building three layers of plaster, created
wealth of western modern art, would play a major barely-seen figures or small houses off in the with river sand and lime, with the last layer being The pentaptych ‘Mutations’ is another fine
role in the art she created during this time. distance and the people she saw on her travels. mixed with water-based paints to make them an example of Menon’s experiments with refreshing
Her fortuitous meeting with British archaeologists essential part of the layer. This last layer itself what a mural is seen as. Using computer-aided
“My early work was so influenced by early in Syria also seems to have influenced her to would take six months to slake, making this art, she explores five different forms of a woman.
Christian art, that there were critics who, when I incorporate elements of the ancient into her medium a more intentional and laborious one than Now at the NGMA in New Delhi, this mural would
came back from Paris, said what is this Western works. The mid-1960s saw the arrival of hints of the oil paints Menon was used to. The large inspire many artists to come to use computers to
influence in your work? I had a very Western melancholy in her work with Christian iconography amount of time that the process took would assist their artworks. ‘Two Faces of Ayesha’, a
upbringing, I have an American grandmother and playing an understated role. Although Anjolie discourage people in India from commissioning mixed media on board work, is an example of her
my mother had died early, so our grandmother Menon says that she, herself, isn’t very religious, her to create one in the country despite her pentimenti works. A 14-panel work in
brought us up. My aunts were also French. My there is a large body of her oeuvre that continues training. However, she was highly sought after for Vishakhapatnam by the artist would explore
grandfather was Bengali. We always had to be influenced by religious art, especially the her mural and public works. ancient Indian art inspired by the murals seen in
European food on the table, wherever we were in ecclesiastical. Among the many religious icons, Lepakshi temples. Commissioned by the Life
India; my father was also in the army so we moved including Christ, the Madonna and Child has been Her interest in allowing audiences visual and Insurance Corporation of India, the mural is now
a lot,” Menon once told Open Magazine. one of her favourite subjects to return to over the physical access to her works by placing them in dismantled.
years in different forms. She was later also public spaces comes from the need to
It was also in Paris that Menon met her friend influenced by Buddhist imagery and Islamic democratise art. She has been noted as saying, She also created a large mural for the Mumbai
Francesco Toledo, a Mexican artist whose works calligraphy and incorporated them into her “Once paintings disappear into private collections, International Airport in collaboration with
were executed with the extensive use of an ink paintings and glass works. you don’t see them again. I feel the work I do Australian photographer Robyn Beeche. While the

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