Ramakinkar Baij : Opinion on Art (book published in bengali by MonChasa Publications, Durgapur, West Bengal, India)

Overview 
Translated from Bengali by Pinaki Sarkar

I am a free traveler of a fine but long road

Without meditation, it is impossible to move along this path of art.

Almost all meditation path is same, though meditation path is tough, a fight against forces, like an impostor fog it tries to misdirect free mind in the wrong direction. In order to save from them there is always a thought.

I am seeing you also, my co-traveler, I am not alone.

This puja is going on age after age.

Humanity is a mad nobility.

I thank all of you.

From my childhood I wanted only one thing – wherever road I take I will construct sculptures along those road.

Sunlight, moonlight, under the sky filled with rain those sculptures look very good.

Besides the playful origin of life, upon the rhythmic framework the lively game of life and death looks beautiful. Allow me to see.

What will I draw? What sculpture will I build?

Still I won’t leave, like mad gabbling.

Interview with  Ramakinkar Baij
Translated from Bengali by Pinaki Sarkar 

Q: In your times, what was the main problem that Artists like you faced.

A: None. There was no problem. If I knew how to draw..then there is no problem at all. Oh Yes..there was one …how to draw and another ..Women. Leave that. Problem is to produce more and collect more. Leaving these.. there was none at all.

Q: In today’s world, what is the main problem faced by the artists.

A: Freedom…Freedom to work. Will to work..it came ..it comes. And relationship with people. I have seen great human beings why will accept any lesser.

Q: Why didn’t you marry? Do you want to say something on this topic?

A: I never wanted to marry and have a family life. I only wanted to do my work that’s all. If I married it would not have been possible. I get the pleasure of family life by art. Women…yes there is a need for women. After all men has been created by nature.

Q: Your paintings and sculptures are both wrapped in Nature in a very strange way. ?

A: Well human beings live in nature itself.

Q: Amongst nature you stressed on Trees?

A: Alive. Trees. Trees are alive.

Q: Not just about parts of trees, at the level of beauty the relationship with the branches is more.

A: Branches are the real .They are alive. Leaves will come, flowers will come. The roots are real. The real are the roots.

Q: Once during his exhibition, in an interview Picasso commented that if nature did not exist then artistry do not exist. However in order to recreate nature artists insult the nature.

A: I disagree. They cannot insult. No Insult. An artist cannot insult. Artist do not mimic nature. Nature is ‘maya’..nature is ‘lila’. God created nature, his own creative play. Why wouldn’t he allow us to play? We will also play. In his play there is a rhythm, rules and framework. Play…you can also play. Creation is a play. I play that game with peace in me. Tagore in one of his pomes said that ‘I will say your name , in various ways’…’I will say with smile on my face, I will say with tears on my eyes’..my smiles are also his , my thoughts are also his. Nature…nature. Picasso has some constrictions…that is why he said that. God created ..without any reason. Birth of child also has a reason. Get happiness from what God has created. Do not clash..do not fight…just ‘lila’

Q: How?

A: How …you will get the answer yourself. If I did not get happiness then I would not have worked…no question…we will have to forget everything. We will have to only play. If there is any grudge in the mind then you will understand that you did not forget. Birth takes place for the future. That is how it is .To see, to recognize and at that time is the birth of wisdom. I get happiness, I create. Get more happiness…Buddha…Buddha…Present—birth of a child is one way is rebirth…not without me but within me …maya..maya.

Q: Most of your work is related with the Santal tribes of Birbhum ?

A: Well that’s not true. I did other things also. Yes…in a way. They are manual laborers…they work..they have hands..sun..sunlight…open hair..sweat. They get hungry…they get tired..they feel pain..sad…they are poor. Yet they are very active. I like active people. Pure, active lifestyle. The people who work at the office lead a dull life..they only seat…nobody knows what they write …let them sit. Those businessmen what is their activity..wherever I went …whomever I saw active I drew them . They have lots of beauty within themselves.

Q: Why didn’t you draw a picture of yourself?

A: I drew…when I was at the village..long before I came here at Santiniketan. Maybe I will do again later…it is just a matter of mood…but others drew me. There are pretty good ones.

Q: So will you do a self portrait?

A: Whatever an artist do is self portrait only.

Q: What is most necessary for creation?

A: Free mind. Freedom of mind is absolutely necessary and feelings. Feelings.

Q: For feelings or for expression?

A: Expression. For expression you need more.

Q: Express for what?

A: For your own and then for others. Tagore did for whom? for creation ..there is madness—there is addiction..those who create. I cannot say no.Tagore use to say of himself ‘’addicted and mad”..happiness is first.

Q: with thought and understanding?

A: not without any thought.If you want to know, will anybody understand. Picture is just a picture. Tagore use to say “I don’t care. I don’t care. Whatever way I thought, I drew that way. I don’t want you to understand. Whatever you think of it…you think “

Q: While doing work , when did you get the most happiness ?

A: Every time…every time..from my early childhood ..every time.

Q: You worked on every media?

A: Mood…whatever media was available to me at that time.

Q: Do you always think beforehand about the subject of your work? How do you proceed?

A: Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. Without any thought…I just feel and go on working. Everything comes along automatically…on its own.

Q: Is it possible to complete a work so much that nothing can be added or taken away from it ?

A: No. No work is fully complete. I just go on working on it..working on it. If I get tired then probably I leave. If I get a new idea..I leave. There is always that dissatisfaction. As long as sky is empty …there is satisfaction..else the picture goes on changing. Do it again…finish it …then do it again…just go on doing it…sometimes it changes completely. Do it again…make another one. Tagore wrote five thousand poems, after that he started painting. Why? Why did he do …that wish is always there. This is what he taught us …that is why I learned…I did again…leave the previous one and make another one.

Q: In order to work what do you need most?

A: Feeling for everything. Feeling. If that feeling is weak then what we get is hopelessness. Feel …feel .If meditation is right then feeling will come.

Q: Nowadays, you are occasionally sick, still you go on painting. Don’t you want to rest ?

A: What take rest?  No…No I will have to do something..what do I do ? Sing? Talk with people?...time is very less..where is the time ? I passed seventy years …I don’t know where the time went by.

Q: Work, New Work. New story.

A: Yes. Constant observation…if my eyes are open I can see so many things together.

Q: Did you ever think that for your art what did the country, your society give you ?

A: I am not that kind of beggar. I don’t want anything. I get everything from my work.

Q: Last question, How long would you like to work like this?

A: As long as I can. To my last breadth..when my work will finish …then my meditation will also end …then emptiness will be like the sky . Sky…sky.

Sir, I am an artist of lines and planes, who only observe with my own eyes . 
By Ramakinkar Baij , Translated from Bengali by Pinaki Sarkar

In order to worship the God of life , one will always have to submit one’s complete consciousness. Even after that it is not enough, something more will remain to be needed. I have seen how lightning plays amongst the dark clouds, astoundingly strange. After that the rain, dancing peacock with its glorious feathers spread-out , without any friends , crying out in lonely consonance with the clouds.

In my childhood I traveled far away to get education but ran back to home when I heard the news of my mothers death. I came to understand death a little late. As if I don’t know how to speak. I don’t like just talking. Only one sound ‘Maa’- that’s it, no more words. A deep pain’s mute expression.

I saw Gurudev Robindranath Tagore spending his half-life composing words, tune and sound like a fountain. Overflowing. Later I saw him, for ten years he spent time in silence with lines and beautiful colors.

Speed and friction are separate. Faster the speed more it is hoarse. Where they are in tandem, music appear. A composer ends his analysis with just six syllables. A composer’s analysis technique is ancient. Using the science of these just six syllables they express all our feelings, emotions and thoughts.

What I have seen are Shivlinga, whatever sculptures we get clearly from Mohenjo-Daro-Harappa, that’s all. I don’t get anything beyond that – my eyes are the only way to see them. From nature we get two forms , man and woman. Third is their progeny. This theme has a strange beauty. Upon this is the play of  so much happiness, so much beauty.

The effort is to express this within another form. The name of that form is symbol- that is what I try.

With speed comes friction and from that sound. Where friction is in consonance with speed then it melodious else it is cacophony. A composer, with that melody only, creates and sustains music. That game is what I see everywhere.

This is symbol, that is how it is popular. Do music have these kind of symbols? A musician will be able to say that.

Nowadays it is only words that are trendy. I don’t understand, it doesn’t get into my ears. My ears are rattling. In this age another confusion is from machines. What more do you want? If this age is of machines, then when will the age of silence will come? I wait in the hope of that?

The sound of a sculptor and a painter is minimal. When Tagore use to paint , I have seen he use to keep quiet. Yet he spend most of his life with sound. Artists who work with words, with music, both of them use sound. Visual artistry with lines and planes is quiet. Only meditation. In one place Tagore wrote that ‘the treasure of meditation will have its own tune’. Here sound is used. Without sound, the expression will not have a body. Either voice, or expressive musical instrument is needed.

Sir, I am an artist of lines and planes, who only observe with my own eyes. Not an artist of sound. Anyway, there is beauty in sound also but when there are arguments and quarrels these sound starts rattling. Sound of tram, cars, truck, trains, factory sound, humming sound of the crowd – you listen to all these, yet for more sound you print and publish magazines. I really commend your patience.