My uncle Parduman died last year. The sad part was that he died unsung and un heralded, though he was a painter of some standing. Sadder was the fact that he had left his family at the age of 80 and come back to Mumbai to paint. But he couldn't re-establish and died lonely. I wish I had been there to help him, but he was gone ere I came to know about him. My memory of him is of a vibrant painter who once took me to a nude painting class.
It was a wonderful experience as the nude model posed before some 14 artistes including 2 girls, as each sketched her. The nude model had her thighs crossed and I felt she was a little self conscious. But over the years I have been wondering why painters have been painting nudes.
While in school our art master Mr Paul once took us to an exhibition of paintings of the famous painter Roerich, a Russian. What caught my eyes were the large paintings of nude women that adorned the exhibition. Being an amateur painter myself, I did sketch one nude of a sleeping woman. Unfortunately it is perhaps lying in a loft at my house.
The charm of painting a nude woman cannot be described. It differs from a naked woman, which some how looks slightly distasteful. But the Greeks and our own ancient artistes all brought forward the nude woman . Most of the Goddesses of the Hindus have been sculptured nude in the temples, so I wonder what the fuss is all about Hussein's paintings.
The fact of the matter is that a nude woman is an object of beauty. Hence a painter will try to capture that beauty. One has to see the Paintings of Goya, Picasso and Dali to realise this. But remember nude paintings are not for the voyeur. They are basically an expression of art. May be at some stage love and sex may also be a part of it, but that is what the Tantra and Acharaya Rajneesh have been talking about.
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