Uttam Parcharne, one of India’s top sculptors, carved out his career against all odds

Uttam Pacharne, a sculptor who has come a long way from a small village in Ahmednagar to Mumbai in the late seventies, has carved a niche for himself in Mumbai’s art world; when it comes to monumental public sculptures, Uttam Pacharne’s name figures in a highposition; he has travelled across the Arabian Sea to execute a sculpture at Mauritius. He has represented Maharashtra at Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi; he is a senior committee member and former chairman of the Bombay Art Society. The `Swatantra Jyot' (Flame of Freedom) at Port Blair took a vibrant shape due to the imagination of Uttam Pacharne, a recipient of Lalit Kala Academy’s National Award. Rajendra speaks to him on his inner and outer struggles
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Rajendra: You passed out from Sir J.J. School of Art in the early ’80s; did you intentionally choose sculpture as a profession?

Uttam Pacharne: No, it wasn’t an intentional decision. I was born and brought up in a very small village Sakalewadi; it is in Karjat tahsil of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. I come from a very poor family with a humble background; I haven’t read what poverty means, but I have seen and experienced it. My father would work on daily wages and even my primary education was very difficult on that meagre income. I finished primary education till fourth standard and there was no secondary school in my village. After initial hesitation, my parents sent me to Kokangaon, my maternal uncle’s place, which was 10 miles away from our village. Their financial position was better than ours, so I studied there till seventh standard; after that I got admission in Rayat Shikshan Santha’s newly started New English School; I happened to be the first student on their muster. I was put into the hostel; students would run the hostel on a charity collected from the noble-minded people in the area. As the school was new, I would paint the walls of the school and draw maps of India with minute details on the walls. I would draw animals, birds and prepare charts on the walls; that was my initial self-training in the art and my teachers would appreciate it.

R: When did you first realise that you wanted to join the art school?

U P: You can’t call it a realisation even for that matter. Now that I am a sculptor, I can boast of so many things; but frankly speaking it was not even my aim to become an artist. Being from a poor family, my father would think that I should do something and start supporting the family financially as early as possible; but it was my mother who thought differently and supported me to take further education. My drawing teacher told me to do an Art Teachers Diploma (ATD), so that I could get a drawing teacher’s job in a school; then I tried for admission at Ahmednagar, but couldn’t get it. I tried in Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya, at Pune; luckily I met Kamath sir who helped me get the admission in ATD even though I was late.

I stayed in a brick factory where a few people from our village would work; in return I would teach the children of brick factory workers. I stayed with them for two years till I completed ATD; it was a great struggle, like the one we see in the film.

R: How did you reach Sir J.J. School of Art from Abhinav?

U P: In ATD, I stood first in Maharashtra; moreover I was the only one to pass ATD in the first class. I got eight calls from different schools for the drawing teacher’s post, but my teachers from Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya did not let me become an art teacher. They almost forced me to join Sir J.J. School of Art, though my financial position did not warrant it. As I was first in Maharashtra, I got admission in J.J. and government hostel as well. I took admission in painting and studied in painting class for six month and then shifted to sculpture.

R: Why did you shift from painting to sculpture class?

U P: It was an accident; one day, at around 5 o’ clock in the evening, I was roaming around in J.J’s picturesque campus; I had never visited a sculpture studio in the last six months but that day I just peeped inside the studio and saw the sculptures everywhere; I entered the studio and was so mesmerised by those sculptures that I immediately felt, yes, it is the thing I wanted to do; without consulting anybody, I went to Khanvilkar sir, head of sculpture department and asked him if I can get admission in sculpture; six months were over but still he gave me admission; I came from painting to sculpture on an impulse. But later everybody at the hostel made me feel like I was a great fool who chose sculpture, which has many limitations as a medium. I became tense; I even went to Sambhaji Kadam, our dean, and requested him to revert me back to the painting class; but he refused. I even thought of going back to Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya if they give me admission in painting; but all the roads were blocked. Some even suggested that I should take the admission next year in the first year painting again! But as I felt closer to sculpture on the first look itself, I made a resolve to continue in the sculpture class.

R: In hindsight, thirty years down the line, knowing all the limitations of the medium vis-à-vis painting, do you think that changing the admission from painting to sculpture was a mistake?

U P: No; irrespective of the medium limitations, I say it was not a mistake; it is sculpture that gave me everything, name, identity, big house, studio, car, money and luxury, that I could not have even dreamt of in childhood. My daughter is studying in London; all this is because I shifted to sculpture class! The majority of public art is sculpture that involves commissioned work. My monumental commissioned sculptures are spread all across the country…right from Delhi, Jaipur, Jhansi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai…to Andaman and Nicobar islands. I did a lot of commissioned work but did not get stuck in commissioned work. Since my first solo show of sculptures at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, in 1984, I have had 20 solo shows of sculptures with six in Jehangir Art Gallery. I don’t look at it as a profession that earns bread and butter; I look at sculpture as a form, whether commissioned or experimental. Inspiration for sculpture comes from personal experience and beliefs. I enjoy the hardness of this medium; the richness of this medium lies in its hardness. It is a different thing that sculptors in this country don’t enjoy the status that painters do.

R: In the art field, people often don't take the sculptor seriously as a fine artist because of his association with commissioned work. Is it also the reason he does not enjoy the status a painter enjoys in our country?

U P: In a roundabout way, yes; but sculptors don’t handle controversial subjects; you would not find a single controversy surrounding the sculptor; as opposed to it, now almost on a weekly basis, there is ‘this’ or ‘that’ controversy involving a painter which is reported in media, keeping the fraternity in the limelight. What is wrong with commissioned work? I can cite a hundred names who had done commissioned work or illustrations at some point of their career who now consider themselves as pure fine artists. India is a land of sculptures! Buddhist sculptures of Sarnath, Sanchi, the Gandhara and Mathura school are still revered objects of art and are the eternal sculptures of India. We have a treasure trove of sculptures at Ajanta, Ellora, Elephanta and Khajuraho; the entire south is studded with temples that have stunningly intricate designs and other sculptural pattern on them. But we don’t know the sculptors who made all these classical sculptures that make the west look at us with envy. The sculptor in this country was made to remain incognito and society is conditioned to believe in status quo.

R: You have done many monumental commissioned sculptures; there is a criticism. Some people say that all public sculpture orders by the government go to you. Please comment.

U P: I have spent 30 years in the field; I have worked hard and reached the position where I am today; you can’t do corruption when it comes to your creative ideas. As far as public sculptures installed at the public places by government are concerned, there are set parameters and eligibility criteria for being chosen to execute those sculptures; take the example of ‘Swatantrya Jyot’ (Flame of Freedom) which the Central government has put at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Island in the cellular jail where our freedom fighters were tortured and executed. That was a monumental work; government invited seven sculptors from across the country; everybody was asked to present their ideas in front of the committee and ministers; six sculptors put forward their ideas about ‘Swatantrya Jyot’; when I was invited, I gave my idea, removed a small model from my bag and put it on the table; the minister just kept on looking at it and simply said, “we will go with it” and even the sculptors who were invited gracefully agreed that it was a great idea and I deserved it. Maharashtra government wanted to install ‘Sthambhas’ in all the district of Marathwada; I was chosen for the work. I studied Stupas of Bharhut and Sanchi and Ashokan pillars and erected all these ‘Sthambhas’ within eight months; each sthambha was 17 feet high; there were 32 relief sculptures on each; all were in bronze, weighing around eight tons each. You can imagine the enormity of the work involved. If it is constructive criticism, I am not the person who will shy away from it. In the Vidhan Bhavan and Mantralaya complex, I have done only Ramananda Thirth and Sahu Maharaj’s sculptures; there are ten more sculptures in the area; they are not mine! The people who are known for doing idols had done a few of those sculptures! Even grass has grown on their sculptures! It tells about their quality.

R: Please tell us more about ‘Swatantrya Jyot’.

U P: Every brick of Cellular Jail in Port Blair stands testimony to the inhuman treatment and torture meted out to our freedom fighters who challenged the might of the British rulers. ‘Swatantrya Jyot’ will keep alive the saga of their epic struggle. The ‘Swatantrya Jyot’ is the second such structure that perpetuates the memory of the freedom fighters, the first being the ‘Amar Jyoti’ at Jallianwala Bagh.
Swatantrya Jyot is designed with the weatherproof bronze structure. The flame is put up close to the martyrs' column in the complex. I used to eat my lunch at the place where our freedom fighters were tortured and executed. Sometimes, the thought of it would send a chilling wave into my spine; cradled at a height of 6 feet, the flame is set on a four by four feet pedestal. An octagonal canopy of 15 ft high covers the entire structure. A garland of white marble forms the ‘parikrama’ surrounding the monument. This enables the visitors to go around the flame and pay homage to the martyrs. The eternal flame is fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and there is a special room to store 12 LPG cylinders to maintain an uninterrupted supply to energise the flame. Swatantrya Jyot is my most favourite and memorable work; the small name plaque at the bottom of it got me associated with the history of Indian freedom struggle and that’s the moment every artist craves for.

R: Who are the artists who influenced you deeply, people you feel you owe something to?

U P: When I was in college, almost all my teachers influenced me, which I believe happens with every art student. I used to work with B Vithal and learnt a lot from him. I like Ramesh Pateriya’s work; I like Ram Sutar, who is the only sculptor to have his sculpture studio and foundry on the 30 acres of land in Delhi. I like Pilu Pochkhanwala.

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