Remembering Vivan Sundaram — India's trailblazing artist who married politics and personal

His final exhibition, currently on display at Sharjah Biennial, caps off a remarkable career

Vivan Sundaram died aged 79. Photo: Chemould Prescott Road

Celebrated Indian artist Vivan Sundaram died on Wednesday after a protracted pulmonary embolism — a blockage in the pulmonary artery.

The 79-year-old, who has a special commission on show at Sharjah Biennial, was born in Shimla. It is the capital city of India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh and he lived there with parents Kalyan Sundaram and Indira Sher-Gil — sister of noted Indian modern artist Amrita Sher-Gil. He later married art historian and critic Geeta Kapur.

A prolific artist, thinker and activist, Sundaram leaves behind a rich legacy of art, his oeuvre spanning mediums including painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video. This versatility put him at the helm of the Indian contemporary art scene even as he formulated a new aesthetic vocabulary to push artistic boundaries and challenge conventions.

Sundaram also had a significant academic pedigree. After studying painting at the celebrated Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, he graduated in history of cinema from the Slade School of Art, London.

Active in student politics in the UK, he was deeply influenced by European anti-imperialism and anti-consumerism. He returned to India in the 1970s and carried forth with his two loves — art and activism, the two often coalescing seamlessly.

“Sundaram’s art has transcended mediums and he has created elaborate and layered installations, using elements of sculptures, photographs and video. His work Memorial (1993, 2014), was made in response to communal violence in Bombay,” read a statement by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, which Sundaram was a founding trustee. “It was a site-specific installation at the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta [Kolkata], now referred to as History Project (1998)”.

Deeply interested in the intersection of society, politics and the urban landscape, Sundaram’s profound series, Trash (2008), explored the social impact and aesthetics of urban waste and vintage objects. Based on the thought-provoking aesthetics of second-hand goods, Trash recalled Sundaram’s installation, Great Indian Bazaar (1997), and was a continuation of his large 2005 exhibition living.it.out.in.delhi. His gargantuan and fantastical cityscape which he crafted with garbage in his own studio in New Delhi seamlessly carried the theme forward.

“In over 50 years of art practice, Vivan Sundaram has been just that kind of artist-explorer. His ceaseless experimentation with new mediums, materials and forms, so as to engage with his immediate context and the ebb and flow of the world, marks him out as a singular presence among his contemporaries. As does his passion to trace the shadow of the past — history — over the present through the idea of the archive and memory,” wrote art expert Chitra Padmanabhan in a column for The Wire news agency.

According to gallerist Shireen Gandhy, creative director at Chemould Gallery, Mumbai, which often displayed Sundaram’s works, in the artist’s immense body of work, there are two that hugely impacted her. “One is 12 Bed Ward and the other is Memorial. 12 Bed Ward was made with old shoes, string, wire and light bulbs that dimly hung from the ceiling. The room felt more moving than eerie. It had references of disposability, reuse, salvage,” she says.

The other work, Memorial, centred on a photograph of a dead man lying bent in the middle of the road, was also very evocative, she adds. “When you speak about art leaving an indelible memory of a moment in history, Vivan's work did just that. Etching deeply the moment of that history of the Bombay riots in our minds and hearts,” she adds.

Small wonder Sundaram’s contributions to Indian contemporary art earned him numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours. “In the early '90s, if one looks back at a breakthrough of mediums, where the norm of artists working in traditional oil paintings, Vivan would be considered one of the earliest 'breakthrough artists'. He truly was the trailblazer,” says Gandhy.

The late septuagenarian’s multidisciplinary practice was also instrumental in shaping the discourse around issues of memory, identity and history, famously fusing the personal with the political, his peers say. “His prolific output transcended the traditional boundaries of art. By forming an art centre, a publication and Sahmat, he pushed Indian artists in new directions and has left an indelible impact on the country’s art scene,” explains his friend, artist Nalini Malani.

Sundaram’s work is also reflective of his upbringing and personal history, as well as by the cultural and political shifts that characterise post-colonial India. One of his earliest series of works, titled The Sher-Gil Archive, exemplifies his interest in the intersections of history and memory, she adds.

Asides from acclaim in India, Sundaram’s art garnered international attention. It has featured at the Gwangju Biennale, the Biennale of Sydney, the Taipei Biennial and the Sharjah Biennial, which is currently showcasing many of his works. One of Sundaram’s last projects was a special commission to mark the 30th-anniversary of the Sharjah Biennial.

Commenting on the inclusion of his work at the biennial, Sundaram wrote that the late Nigerian art critic and conceiver of the biennial Okwui Enwezor’s proposition suggests “a narrative that is dynamic yet recursive in an ethically accountable way".

He added: "I present a photography-based project, Six Stations of a Life Pursued (2022), a choreography of bodies that have undergone violence, experienced incarceration, and lived through mourning. The sixth ‘station’ signifies a journey premised on the historical and rehearsed with activist resolve."

Indeed the final years of Sundaram’s life witnessed some of the widest recognition of his work. In 2018, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi hosted a full-dress retrospective for him. The well-attended and ambitious event was described by fellow artist Krishen Khanna as “breathtaking in its scope and imaginative boldness and a great tribute to a unique artist”.

Sharjah Biennial 15 runs until June 11. More information is at sharjahart.org/biennial-15