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Harish Johari Art Teachers
Comments on his art teachers by Harish Johari in an interview with Louwrien Wijers - probably the list is not complete.

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Chandra Bal

Then I met this teacher of mine shri Chandra Bal and he is about sixty years of age, an old man, very tiny… He has an art school called the modern school of art and when I paint, I go to him, if I am in Bareilly. I go to his school regularly as a student. People ask me what do you do here, they think I am a teacher, but I tell them I am a student and they don't believe it. But it is true, I go there, I sit there in his presence, at his lotus feet and learn from him. I paint, I sketch - he likes my sketching very much - and he says that he cannot sketch like that, but I think that he, if he tries, he can. But I cannot paint like him, that is why I go to him. He is such a beautiful painter. So nice that I cannot do as good work as he is doing in painting, so I learn from him.

Shehem Habathar

I think there are very many people who know more than me. I know one person who I was very much inspired by and he was called Shehem Habathar. He was a teacher of sculpture in Lucknow college and I used to go and sit with him, hours and hours together before I became a sculptor. And I saw him painting, all these forms; he made fantastic Saraswati, goddesses of learning and beauty, he made her sculptures, and Shukundala. He is still alive and serves as a teacher of art in the Lucknow college.

Bigoy Chakra Wartie

When I was a student of Lucknow university doing my masters in Urdu at that time I came across one person who brought me very near painting. His name was Bigoy Chakra Wartie.

Dhar Maha Patra

Then there was a teacher of art shri Dhar Maha Patra, he was a sculptor coming from the tradition, from the family of the person who made the Ajanta and the traditional style which is 2500 years old. As a sculptor there was no teacher except my own eyes which were mostly sitting with sri Dhar Maha Patra and Bigoy Chakra Wartie, two sculptors of my country, watching them sculpt, that's all.

Avatar Singh Panmar

Then I was also in company with Avatar Singh Panmar who was working with modern art, and he was a sculptor and a painter and he made fantastic drawings and paintings, but very much modern.

Nager

Then Nager, a very good painter.

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Texts extracted from the interview of Harish Johari with Louwrien Wijers, called "Shri Harish Johari talks about his work as a painter", taken 27 oktober 1978.

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