PREMOLA GHOSE (1953-2019)
Premola Ghose worked for over four decades at the India International Centre where she held the post of Chief, Programme Division. A gold medallist in MA, History from University of Delhi, she lived history.
A self-taught artist, illustrator and author, the central core of her paintings are a ‘gang’ of animals. In 1998, the first two books written and illustrated by her were published: Gang Tales from Ranthambhor and The Bodhisattva and the Gang.
Since then she has written and illustrated a number of books including Tales of Historic Delhi (2011), The Magical Ride of Juley the Camel (2011) and Zero goes to Goa (2014). The Kangra Valley Train (Niyogi, 2016) written and illustrated by her with photographs by Ram Rahman; and Bula Comes to Montréal (Kala Bharati, Montreal 2017), among others.
Apart from her own books, Premola also illustrated books by other authors; and her illustrations have been published in leading magazines. She has painted a portfolio of paintings on Rajasthan which was commissioned by the Government of Rajasthan.
Premola has exhibited her paintings widely, as a solo artist and as part of group exhibitions in Delhi.
In 2001, Premola was decorated Dame in the civil merit honours list of the King of Spain.
An avid reader, inveterate traveller and raconteur with a vivid and colourful imagination, Premola was passionate and knowledgeable about food. She valued and loved the ordinary and commonplace. Plastic flowers, balloons and wind-up toys were a source of unending delight to her. A prolific writer, who also wrote book reviews, Premola’s travels took her to mofussil towns and heritage sites in India and across the world. Her many travel pieces published in leading newspapers and magazines were informed by her own journeys and her prodigious reading.
PREMOLA’S WONDERLAND
From the first time that Premola’s whimsical `gangsters’ were spotted as lively illustrations in a book, they brought along a wonderland that no other artist has quite been able to duplicate. Their bright presence lends a sense of innocent fun even to such solemn locales as the hallowed Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem or the India International Centre, Premola Ghose’s favourite hunting ground.
Like the well-beloved characters of a latter-day Panchatantra, Premola’s menagerie is composed of Puck-like creatures that say, `what fools these mortals be!’ as they peer into the human world. Placed in a variety of exotic locales from the Bosphorus to Iberia, they gently mock the ludicrous in human landscapes. As their bright gaze travels over terrible tyrants and murderous conquerors, languorous gin-drinkers in roadside cafes as well as lovable crackpots like Don Quixote, they are seldom overwhelmed by the grand historical pasts of classical European landscapes.
Although the eye of the viewer is first arrested by the playful compositions of these bright paintings, one is equally struck by the exquisite details of the floral borders, the complex geometric designs of the classic architecture woven in deftly: soaring domes, arches, spires and minarets of the Middle East and the blinding white of Greek houses against the deep blue of the surrounding sea. Premola’s brush strokes effortlessly spin these contrasts into her parables of modern times, which emerges from her deep interest in Mughal and Islamic art. She has an unerring sense of the vivid contrasts, a hallmark of both these traditions, just as her palette magically captures the sparkle of precious jewels.
Above all, is Premola’s delightful sense of mischief: she is a natural caricaturist and several viewers will be amused to find familiar faces deftly disguised in what can only be described as a loving record of the many countries she travelled to and left behind for all of us to share and savour.
Ira Pande
