Mrinalini Mukherjee

Mrinalini Mukherjee (1949-2017) was an Indian sculptor. Her primary focus was on the mediums of dyed and woven hemp.^[1]

Early life and education

Mukherjee was born in 1949, in Bombay, India to artists Benode Behari Mukherjee and Leela Mukherjee.^[2] The only child to her parents, she was brought up in the North-Indian hill town of Dehradun, where she attended school, and spent her summer vacations in Santiniketan.^[3] She went to study Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, before doing a post-Diploma in mural design under K. G. Subramanyan, an Indian artist and member of the Fine Arts Faculty at the university. She received a British Council Scholarship in 1971, for sculpture at the West Surrey College of Art and Design.^[4]

• 1949 – Born in Bombay^[5]
• 1952-65 – Studied in Dehradun and spent summers in Santiniketan. ^[5]
• 1965-70 – "At Vadodara, where she did degrees in painting and mural design, Mrinalini was put under the tutelage of K.G. Subramanyan, teacher and artist par excellence. But in spite of her mentor’s influence, it was only when she came to fibre, an unlikely medium if any, that her artistic approach took a novel turn." ^[6][7]
• 1965-70 – B.A. Fine Arts (Painting), M.S. University of Baroda ^[5]
• 1970-72 – Post Diploma in Mural Design, M.S. University of Baroda, under Prof. K.G. Subramanyan. Studies included working Italian Fresco and other conventional techniques. Worked with natural fibres as a medium for mural. ^[5]
• 1971-78 – Received British Council scholarship for sculpture; worked at West Surrey college of Art and Design Farnham, U.K. ^[5]
• 1996 – Residency in the Netherlands ^[5]

Career

Mukherjee worked for the West Surrey College of Art and design in Farnham. Her first solo exhibition was held at Sridharani ARt Gallery, in 1972. It featured wrapped woven forms in dyed natural fabric, a series of works that brought her recognition.

In 1994-95, she was invited to the Museum of Modern Art at Oxford to hold an exhibition conducted by David Elliott. The same exhibition further traveled to several cities around the England. Mukherjee has also participated in an international workshop in Netherlands in 1996. Art historian and independent curator Deepak Ananth ascribed Mukherjee’s predilection for modest, earthly materials to her influence from Subramanyan, and in turn from the history of Indian artisanal craft. In an essay entitled "The Knots are Many But the Thread is One", Ananth wrote, "As if in harmony with the vegetable realm from which her medium is derived, the leading metaphor of Mukherjee’s work comes from the organic life of plants. Improvising upon a motif or image that serves as her starting point the work’s gradual unfolding itself becomes analogous to the stirring into maturation of a sapling."^[8]

Style

The authors of Indian Contemporary Art Post-Independence dubbed Mukherjee as a "unique voice in contemporary Indian art", and remarked "The sculptures knotted painstakingly with hemp ropes in earthy or rich glowing colours evoke a fecund world of burgeoning life, lush vegetation, iconic figures." Acknowledging the note of sexuality manifested in the "phallic forms", they added "the mysterious folds and orifices, the intricate curves and drapes. There is a sensuous, tactile quality to her work which exercises a compelling hold on the viewer."^[9]

Mukherjee studied under K. G. Subramanyan, and derived heavily from his artistry. Sonal Khullar writing on Subramanyan's influence on her wrote in Worldly Affliations Mukherjee a former student, "[...] use jute, wood, rope, and cow dung to create environments at once magical and mundane. Their inventiveness with visual language and investments in ordinary materials are a legacy of Subramanyan's teaching, writing and art-making."^[10]

Influences

In the context of the pedagogy professed by K G Subramanyan, Mukherjee's decision to work in a material traditionally associated with her craft rather than "high art" reflects her teacher's conscious attempts to overcome what they considered to be a staple polarity in Modernism, not least in view of the extreme richness and continuing actuality of traditional artisanal skills in India and the sheer versatility of popular vernacular idioms.^[11]

Death

Mukherjee died at the age of 65, after a brief illness.^[7]

Works in Public Collections

• Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK
• Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
• Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
• Roopankar Museum of Art, Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal
• Fine Arts Museum, Punjab University, Chandigarh
• India Tourism Development Corporation, New Delhi
• India Institute of Immunology, New Delhi
• Tate Modern, London^[12]
• Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh^[13]

References

Bibliography

• Dalmia, Yashodharea and Datta, Ella and Sambrini, Chaitnya and Jakimowicz, Martha and Datta, Santo (1997). Indian Contemporary Art Post-Independence (English). New Delhi: Ajanta Offset Ltd.
• Khullar, Sonal (2015). Worldly Affiliations: Artistic Practice, National Identity, and Modernism in India, 1930-1990 (English). California: University of California Press.