Gogi Saroj Pal’s new series and her evolution as an artist

A solo exhibition of recent Works by Gogi Saroj Paul takes place at Delhi Art Gallery.

One of India’s few earliest artists ‘feminist’, and also probably the first woman artist to wear that label proudly, her body of work, vital as a seminal study of the issues, concerns, challenges as well as solutions to be found within the key paradigm of the feminine gender, spans her art career.

In an interview with Nirupama Dutt courtesy Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai on the eve of her new solo show last year she had stated, reminiscing her childhood: “I sought company of mature people wanting to learn and know more. The decision to be an artist was entirely my own. The creative search was budding in my heart. With my uncle being a very famous writer, I was exposed to the literary world. However, I picked up the brush instead of the pen because I wanted to do things my way.”

She added: “Childhood was very rich and I grew up in an environment charged with a revolutionary spirit. Our country had just about gained its freedom. My father Dharam Pal and uncle Yash Pal were associated with Bhagat Singh and Bharat Naujawan Sabha. The spirit was one of changing the old order for something new.

A lot of stress was laid on education and my grandmother Prem Devi, who was a school teacher at Lahore in 1901, after the infamous earthquake in Kangra, was an enlightened and aware woman. The road to art is a long one and I will not say that I knew there was an artist in me then. But what I do know is that there was in me a strong sense of curiosity. I was an inquisitive and somewhat stubborn child and never at rest until I had found a satisfying answer to my queries.

Her works represent her growth as an artist and map her changing concerns, though the central theme remains that of gender and society.