D. G. "Dattatray Gundo" Kulkarni (1921–1992), known as Dizi, was an Indian painter, cartoonist and sculptor.
Considered "one of the most interesting Modernist artists in India", he remained independent throughout his career apart from brief affiliations with the Progressive Artists’ Group and the Bombay Group.
As a student at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art and in the early years of his career, D. G. worked as a part-time illustrator and cartoonist to support his passion for painting. It was at this time that he acquired the sobriquet Dizi.
Dizi's versatility as an artist is reflected in the three distinct media he explored – drawings, paintings and sculpture. His work reflects an honesty of expression rather than a desire for external approval. His closest friends and contemporaries in the art world, V. S. Gaitonde and S. B. Palsikar, shared this philosophy that their artistic integrity must never be compromised.
Dizi received the Lalit Kala Akademi Award in 1967 and the Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar in 1990.
Style
Nina Rege, assistant director, Nehru Centre Art Gallery, states: "Dizi was not only a master painter, but also a master sculptor, caricaturist and a poet. Generally, an artist becomes famous because of his style. But when his style and his personality mirror each other, he is a different artist altogether, Dizi was one such artist. He was different. A contemporary of the Progressive group of artists. Yet he was a rebel with his own independent style."
Jehangir Sabavala reminisced: "It wasn’t as an illustrator or as a cartoonist that he ever came into his own. Unquestionably, his inclination was towards a more serious aspect of art, which, obviously in his case, first led him to painting. In his earlier days, the palette was bright, more colourful, gayer, lighter, which he eschewed as he grew into a more mature man and painter. He left it behind in favour of a more sombre representation where, I think, the lighter, more lyrical colour was put aside and he went into deeper and more restricted tones. Also, mass, form and volume became very important to him. He simplified the paintings, and they became, in a way, monumental. The legacy left behind is of one who worked seriously and for the purpose of the work itself and did not worry whether he should sell or be famous or these other tawdry aspects of the profession."
Artist Prabhakar Kolte observes: "You cannot read his paintings as you would a contemporary artist’s. You have to make a concerted effort to read them by forgetting your own language and script since you have to understand the graphic mood of his lines which were not meant to be tools of expression but ends in themselves."
Professor V. M. Sholapurkar, Founder Dean of CAVA (Chamarajendra Academy Of Visual Arts) comments: "Viewing Dizi’s paintings bestows an illuminating glimpse of the world he chose to inhabit. His work may not be acceptable to all but it is an authentic documentation of what the art world considers a vigorous, sensitive, independent and iconoclastic mind. If one were to see Dizi’s works, untitled and unsigned, it would be difficult to tell that they were all by the same artist. His ceaseless quest for new forms and style; constant experimentation; lack of stereotypes; perfection in drawing and composition and an instinctive understanding of colours stamp him as an enduring and fascinating master artist."
Art historian and former Honorary Director of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Dr. Saryu Doshi concludes: "The life and works of Dizi provide insightful glimpses into the art scene of his times and serve as a valuable documentation of uncharted areas in Mumbai’s art history."
Early life Dizi was born in Shedbal village, Karnataka in 1921 to a family of impoverished landowners. He was a lonely child who exhibited a raw intensity and eagerness to learn and create. A teacher in the village school recognized his potential and invited him to share his library. Words and images became poems in the child's mind and the pen that inked the poems gradually began to transform words into lines drawn from his visual memory that were his to move and compose at will.
Career
Mumbai, 1939-1971
A cartoonist's wit, an artist's sensitivity
Dizi came to Mumbai in 1939 and began his studies in drawing and painting at the Sir J. J. School of Art. As he absorbed the cadence of life in the city, he was engulfed by the surging tide of nationalism and participated in the Quit India movement in 1942. His patriotic fervour earned him a prison sentence, serious injuries and a lifelong limp. On his release, he returned to his studies and completed his diploma. Poverty did not concern him; his wealth was in the hours spent painting and with kindred spirits K. H. Ara, V. S. Gaitonde, M. F. Husain, S. B. Palsikar, S. H. Raza and F. N. Souza.
"During this unsettled and self-supporting student’s life, I let myself flow with the country’s social and political current. I came across men, and political apes alike, who drove me to find my own values. These encounters made me realize that creativity, expressed through art, is more dynamic and satisfying than any social, political or individual existence. Life is exciting, exhilarating, intoxicating, but with its full measure of pain." – Dizi
In 1951, Dizi married Alaka. An artist herself – a sitarist – she understood with sensitivity that the man and the artist in Dizi were two distinct, yet inseparable entities. Together, Alaka and Dizi traveled through the villages and towns of India, studying ancient cave and temple sculptures and contemplating the folklore of generations. The landscapes Dizi traversed and the traditions he encountered were his inspiration. His sketchbook was an extension of himself and the impressions he drew were extensions of his imagination, stroked with confidence and conviction.
"My journey is a kaleidoscope of verdant foliage, sunbaked earth tones, the crimson, saffron and indigo swirl of turban, loincloth and sari. The rippling contours and primal energy of horses and cattle – fleeting, yet powerful impressions, a subconscious harvest." – Dizi
His work affirms the freedom of expression that was his birthright; his drawings and cartoons mirror the moments and experiences he made his own.
The labyrinth Of colours
While cartoons provided income and sustenance, Dizi yearned to transcend pure drawing and explore the realm of colour. His early paintings of faces and figures were experiments in proportion, characterized by a strong cursive line and spontaneous brushwork. Portrayed in ochre, green and rust, enlivened by white and a generous measure of red they feature almond-shaped eyes below a straight brow, elongated fingers and feet.
Richard R. Brettell's essay on ‘Rest’ (1945) in the Robert Lehman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, states: "Although the picture is firmly rooted in the tradition of Indian painting in the vibrancy of its palette and the exaggeration of the eyes of the figures as repositories of special significance, elements of the composition also reflect DIZI’s professional training as a modern artist in what was then the leading professional art school in India’s largest city. The fluid lines, interpenetrating forms, and studied informality of the image suggest that he was familiar with the work of such Western Modernists as Picasso, Matisse and Dufy."
The primitive yielded to the sentimental and refined. ‘Sitar Player’, a portrait of Alaka reflects the miniature tradition as does another work titled ‘Prayer’. These paintings are composed with delicate precision in the Indian decorative style. They represent Dizi's investigation into the relationship between color and line, giving him an intuitive feeling for space and form and an instinctive sense of the use and application of appropriate colour pigments.
The momentum of executing these newly discovered concepts was broken by an acute shortage of funds. Despite this bitter reality, Dizi could neither bring himself to succumb to a complacent, static aesthetic for the sake of patronage nor surrender the free-flowing stream of creative growth that was his sole possession. In these desperate times, Emily Meeker, an American art enthusiast residing in Mumbai, introduced Dizi's work to Mumbai's expatriate community and asked if he would consent to teach her and a group of her friends to paint. An art class was organized at the Meeker residence, offering Dizi a measure of economic respite.
Experiment to conviction
"I don’t follow any school... consciously reject mannerisms, and I take almost all the pictorial values from Indian masters and Western artists." – Dizi, 1959
Dizi belonged to a new generation of artists who sought to express themselves in a modern initiative that knew no inhibitions. They broke free of the traditions imposed by academicism and innovated while continuing to respect the aesthetic grace of Indian art forms and the richness of myth. Cézanne, Dubuffet, Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse, Picabia and Picasso inspired their quest for a contemporary approach to visual interpretation and expression.
The solitude Dizi had deliberately imposed on himself since childhood had nurtured an understanding of the human predicament. His source of inspiration was his inner universe, the mind space between the curtain and backdrop of life's theatre.
"Emotions are transitory. I try to capture the sensation of an ecstatic moment on the canvas I am working on but this is a futile exercise. The dark landscapes of my childhood impose themselves on my palette and I paint grotesque, disproportionate figures on multi-dimensional planes, abstract reflections of a troubled past. I pause, lay down my brush and write to expel the turmoil that prevents me from painting what I had intended to. It takes a concerted effort and Alaka’s unstinting support to bring myself back to brighter hues and a serenity of spirit that prompts me to create a series of translucent watercolors. Even as I work on these, my mind is journeying beyond." – Dizi
Symbolism and significance
When Alaka and Dizi married, they decided they would not have a child as their lives were too unconventional to accept this responsibility. Perhaps it was this that prompted Dizi to muse: "I find myself exploring adolescence, sensuality, womanhood, the concept of mother and child, of burgeoning life. I paint symbols of fertility with a need that borders on desperation. It is almost as though I anticipate and experience fatherhood through the layers of pigment that bring the images born of primeval desire in my mind to life."
In this quest for perpetuity, he found himself reaching out to the familiar reassurance of myth and philosophy and painted a series projecting the origins of life and symbols of the mystic Indian inheritance.
The cartoonist in Dizi enabled him to infuse dramatic and literary content into his paintings. The Clown Series, exhibited in 1963, envisioned a world of fantasy and caprice in which myth and illusion are interspersed with harsh, inescapable reality. The theme of these paintings mutates subtly and imperceptibly between the whimsical antics of the circus ring and the mysterious and magical impact of symbols. Embarking on this creative adventure, Dizi painted in tumultuous colours.
"The clowns parade on the screen of my mind. Their spontaneous, merry capers momentarily dispel the barren emptiness of disappointment and the anguish of experience. Masked and garbed in blithe dots, lines and patches they simulate the pattern and parody of human existence." – Dizi
Art critic Dr. Charles Louis Fabri's review of the exhibition stated: "D. G. Kulkarni’s talent is too obvious to be missed. He is interesting, original... a fine draughtsman who refuses to give up representation for abstraction. The clown is shown in many shapes and his motley dress forms the justification for the many colours."