Portrait of a politician

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Portraits are all about capturing towering personalities in oil on the canvas. In the past, Indira Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and others were all time favourites for artists. More recently, Rahul Gandhi’s portrait was seen at India: Imagined in the Present, an exhibition presented by the Nirula Family Company. But very few artists are venturing into this genre of giving politicians a fitting tribute. Is it the lack of inspiration or just not enough icons?

Even as the exhibition explored India’s political heritage, Rahul’s painting was symbolic of hope. But haven’t politicians’ portraits gone missing from today’s art scenario? Many debate why Indian politicians don’t somehow qualify as portrait material.
“When I was asked to paint for this exhibition, the first subject that came to my mind was Rahul Gandhi, as presently, he is the only politician who really looks like the future of India. In 1993, I did an entire series on Rajiv Gandhi, and I feel Rahul possesses very much the same features. I painted a similar portrait of Sonia and Rajiv together, where two flowers in the backdrop indicated their children, and now the beautiful flowers indicate youth and how Rahul will keep their hopes alive. The backdrop is of Kashmir,” says artist Sanjay Bhattacharya.
Ace lensman Raghu Rai says that in today’s political scenario, where terror threats have become common, the security issues pose a major problem for an artist who wants to click or paint a politician. He explains, “There are many faces among Indian politicians who will make excellent portraits, but the problem is access to these people is no more like it used to be. Lalu Yadav will make a brilliant portrait, Mayawati and Amar Singh too, but it’s not that easy to shoot them from close quarters, which is a must for a photographer. I would personally want to shoot Sonia Gandhi as I like her sense of style, and Laluji too.”
For artist Abhishek Singh there is a dearth of role models in the political field. “There was a time when politicians were great role models for people, but all that has changed. We don’t really have role models like Gandhiji, or Indira Gandhi to look up to and as an artist, you need an inspiration. The only news that you hear about politicians is negative, so maybe many artists don’t really look forward to painting their portraits,” he says.
Photographer Rohit Chawla sums it up by saying that a combination of easy access to political faces through the electronic media, coupled with the lack of faces with great leadership qualities has led to this diminishing interest in portraying politicians. “Most people from the younger generation can’t even relate to politicians today. Except for Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, how many politicians do people actually want portraits made of? Also, with so many news channels, these personalities are 24X7 on television, which makes people lose interest in their portraits,” he adds.