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The Anjolie Ela Menon mural damaged by the Metro Railway will be restored.
On Wednesday, Metro had reported (grab right) how another painting had been hammered in on top of the mural, worth a few crores, gifted by the artist to the people of Calcutta and put up at Esplanade station. Two of the five panels of the mural have been damaged.
Later in the day, Metro Railway officials said steps are being taken to undo the damage. “Gallerist Ambica Beri has taken the responsibility of restoring the work,” they said.
The restoration of the 20 ftx8 ft mural in fibreglass, gifted in 1993 by the Delhi-based Anjolie Ela, would be a long-drawn-out-process.
“It will take at least five to six months,” said Beri, who met Metro Rail officials and then visited Esplanade station to study the extent of damage. “We plan to take it down, remove it, clean it and then put it up once again after framing it with acrylic sheets. Glass will make it too heavy. The back, too, will be covered.”
The restoration work will be done in Calcutta. “There are some restorers in Calcutta, and Victoria Memorial has some trained restorers. I will have to speak to Anjolie when she is back (from Bangkok) to decide on the restorer. We can bring a restorer from Delhi, but much depends on how much the Metro Rail authorities are willing to spend,” said Beri.
The damage was discovered a month ago by a photographer commissioned by Anjolie Ela to take a picture of the mural.
The artist, who traces her origin to Sovabazar, had subsequently written to Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi to draw his attention to this act of vandalism.
It was then discovered that the Metro Rail authorities had hammered another painting on top of the mural, depicting a Sardar reading a newspaper, a bare-breasted woman with a goat waiting for the train to arrive, a woman carrying a naked child with a bald-headed Brahmin sitting on a green trunk, a boy chatting up a railway guard with his red and green flags, and a couple performing namaz on a railway platform.
“The Metro Rail has treated it with scant respect. They had the gall to cover it,” Ela Menon had told Metro.
The reaction from the world of art has been sharp. Jogen Chowdhury said: “Both the Metro Rail and the city as a whole should have clear-cut policies on such matters.... Anything goes and nobody is bothered.”
He made special mention of a mural on the wall of the Netaji Bhavan station that was so ghastly that one had to look away in despair.
Speaking from Santiniketan, Chowdhury wondered why Calcutta does not have an Urban Arts Commission like Delhi, which can decide on such aesthetic issues.
But unknown to Chowdhury, all members of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission, headed by architect Charles Correa, have resigned, alleging government interference.