The shock wave created by his sudden demise has left the artist community in a daze. S. Nandagopal [1946-2017] who passed away at his residence at Cholamandal Artists Village on the night of 14th April breathed his last in the manner he had desired. According to his wife Kala, “Thambi, as he was popularly known, always wanted to have a death of this type, working, and in full command of himself. In the last few years he seemed to be in a hurry to finish his work particularly the book he wanted to publish of his father K.C.S. Paniker and to document the profiles of artists represented in the K.C.S. Paniker Museum of Madras. And he managed to finish all this work”.
A national awardee of Lalit Kala Akademi [1970] and Gold Medal winner at the IV Triennial India, International [1978] Nandagopal was a thinking, intelligent artist. As a person he was friendly, easy to engage in a conversation and well aware of the art scene nationally and internationally. Yet there was an inherent complexity within him which was difficult to fathom. He remained a dedicated sculptor till the end except for his brief foray into painting, having had a show in Bengaluru and Chennai in the past few years. His journey with sculpture over five decades was a well thought out, constructively progressive process, keenly perceptive and sensitive to his needs of developing a visual language in sculpture that would meet the demands of his persona, as well as draw inspiration from cultural heritage, particularly the native/local traditions. He was articulate in expressing his thoughts and concepts and had a definite reason for his engagement with the regional cultural traditions, firmly believing that culture and its traditions remain as a continuous process of the collective subconscious. Though exposed to the ideologies, techniques and styles of European modernist master sculptors, particularly Gonzalves, Caro, Henry Moore, Constantin Brancusi, David Smith and Jonathan Borofsky, he was not attracted to their visual vocabulary, premised on a simple logic that they carried their internalized modernist attitudes within them. Wherein a break with the past was considered progressive, he realized that such an approach would be inappropriate within his cultural and artistic context. It was this awareness, of going beyond the western modernist formal aesthetics that enabled Nandagopal to mark a posture of difference.
An outstanding innovator and an eminent sculptor within the Madras Art Movement, his avant-gardism stems from his unique approach to making sculptures which had a two dimensional quality - a characteristic derived as a point of reference from the sculptor P.V. Janakiram. The thematic content, materials, technique and above all the detailing of forms particularly from the animal and the avian world, the fish and decorative appendages that he added creating tensions of complexity between the geometric and organic. In engaging with natural forms, he was subconsciously establishing characteristics of his personality through their representation, signaling complexity not only in creativity and knowledge but of transformation and change [fish], energetic nature, witty playfulness [monkey], sense of freedom and self confidence [bird] strength and power, mental faculties and loyalty [elephant], curiosity and inquiry [goat]. These varied elements relate subjectively to Nandagopal’s persona offering an interesting take on his sculptures that goes beyond mere aesthetics and other considerations.
Nandagopal gained admission to the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras after graduating in Physics from Loyola College. He joined the Painting course, but in the second year he faced a dead wall, unable to move ahead. Fortunately, the college curriculum mandated students to work in sculpture, ceramic or any of the crafts workshops that were headed by traditional ironsmiths, goldsmiths, textile weavers, furniture designers etc. Nandagopal had said, “At the craft studio, the most important factor was that those sculptors would come to anneal their sculptures in the furnace and have them welded. The late P.V. Janakiram, Kanhai Kunhiraman, Anila Jacob and Vidyashankar Sthapathy formed the core of the group. Today they are well known names in Indian sculpture and contact with them at that juncture proved crucial in my change over from a painter to a sculptor.”
His attraction to myths legends and rituals was part of the collective subconscious as the Indian mind has been alive with fables and myths, with her culture resting on this "mythopia". It is little wonder that the works of Nandagopal, eloquently expressed this concept through modernity's lens. He brought alive space through his flat and two-dimensional frontal sculptures with interesting themes like the bird catcher, Hanuman, Dancing Goat on a Harp, Enchanted, Kama, Acrobat etc later extending the same as ‘frontal narrative sculptures’. His favoured material in all his creations was a combination of brass, bronze, silver and copper. Working with sheet metal he created his forms broadly to suggest the human, bird or animal forms or would combine forms to make them hybrid. This process of creation was consummately laborious. The visualization of concept and subject would be followed by a detailed drawing in terms of the whole composition. In his own words, he has detailed the process, “Over the years, I had drawn first and then transferred onto soft cardboard, which I can bend and tack into place with scotch tape to get the required shape. When the round shape of the sculpture emerges in cardboard, I untack the whole thing and trace it on to sheet copper or bronze. Then I cut out shapes in metal and beat them to form the component parts of the sculpture. The next process is the brazing of the pieces by means of brass brazing rods. Copper and brass wires and rods are also brazed onto it. Finally the finished sculpture is treated with nitric acid to remove fuxes, dirt and so on. It is then electrically buffed to obtain the required shine before being sprayed with a clear acrylic that forms the protective coating.” His methodology manifests scientific logic yet imbued with aesthetic artistry that calls attention to both the forms and the intricate intimate details. Undeniably his works impresses with its dynamic form having fractional representation in the manner of ancient Egyptian conventions. The inherent decorative appeal which was implied through linear welded forms was enhanced through bright enamel colours if necessitated. The vocabulary of Nandagopal remained ever vibrant and energetic with a sense of mythical narration.
A glance over the decades, demonstrates Nandagopal’s evolution of his sculptures. In the late 1960s his works were compact with the surface of metal sheets dotted with a variety of forms and shapes both geometric and organic. The reference to these two terms derived from folkandtribaltraditions, and was informed by the Nativist ideology of his father K.C.S Paniker. Paniker’s turn to regional culture or going back to tradition and one’s roots emerged against a broader backdrop on the question of Indian identity in the 1960s to interact creatively with internationalism from the margins of the Third World. Paniker’s introspection on engaging with local traditions giving it a distinctness in the developing modernity in Madras was thus ‘Nativist’, which attempted marginalization of Euro centric and American expressions and foregrounding of local regional influences. In a sense Nativism in visual arts was an attempt to battle the invasion of alien sensibilities and to articulate modes of feeling. This called into question the problem of modernity and indigenous identity. Modernity in its visual language and vocabulary had been scrutinized but traditional art forms were largely unexamined. The sculptors of the Madras group engendered not only valorization but also a sincere attempt to make it an inherent aspect of their artistic vocabulary. It was not mere translation but assimilation into the creative language.
In developing his compositional theories Nandagopal made reference to the dynamic shape and appearance of the gopuram, which is loaded with profuse sculpture. The inspirational aesthetic he drew out from these historical monuments was to emphasize a play on duality. This was to imply that sculpture should project a strong shape and form eliciting enough interest to allow a close scrutiny, which would reveal rich myriad play of figurative and decorative details. In his composition he thus negotiated this artistic space with ease and confidence wherein the surface was charged with restless baroque dynamism.
Nandagopal’s body of works in the 1970s and 1980s ranged in their thematic content from iconic images, trees, encounter of man and the beast or the concept of the hero stone, which manifested a vocabulary of symbols and allusions. The sculptures were abstract in terms of significant reduction, evolving his ‘pictorial sculptures’ through mediation with a dominant form. Said Nandagopal, “Unlike in painting where the shape is given, in sculpture I have to discover a new shape each time and that is a problem”. The ‘form’ in his works of mid 1970s invariably assumed the shape of naga or the snake and within it he constructed his dynamic imagery with an interplay of light and shade. The surface imagery partially underlined the dominant folk trope adapted to suit his needs. In these adaptations, he came close to the pictographs of Paniker translated as reliefs, manifesting a connection with Paniker’s equally avant-garde series of Words and Symbols. The surface ornamentation was painstakingly and assiduously worked enhancing the tactile feel of sensuousness and richness.
After 2000 Nandagopal’s sculptures displayed an openness of form, a broad treatment of the composition, a secular approach to the subject matter jettisoning partially the earlier contents from myths, epics and religion. His compositions remained predominantly vertical, yet with daring compositional asymmetry acquired over years of working in balancing forms for visual aesthetics. These works remain testimony to the intensity of his sustained vision. His works displayed subtle humour, pragmatic earthiness, dynamism, aerial quality and more intriguingly surreal to the eye and mind.
Through past to present, Nandagopal imagined the future. The gradual conceptual and thematic changes and transformation he wrought in his works metaphorically or should I say ironically were through the element of fire, which remained the protagonist of his sculpture construction. In his passing, he leaves a legacy for the future generation to move beyond, and establish another realm in plastic art tradition.