Vamona Navelcar

Vamona Ananta Sinai Navelcar (5 May 1929 – 18 October 2021) was a Portuguese artist (He returned to India in his later years while still a Portuguese citizen He began his art career in Mozambique, after training in Portugal, where he also lived for some time.) He excelled in Christian figurative art. He adopted the name of Ganesh, after an incident that caused him to be "reborn" and in memory of his brother Ganesh.

Navelcar had been called "a state treasure of Goa, whose remarkable oeuvre spans several decades." He had twice received the Gulbenkian Foundation Fellowships (1963 and 1971) and he won an international award at the International Exhibition of Art in Monte Carlo for his ink drawing, Angoch Woman. He is considered a "prolific master of line" with a specialisation in murals and bas-relief composed of metallic, wooden and glass structures and his works form part of private and museum collections worldwide.

Life and career

Early life (1929–1954) Navelcar was born on 5 May 1929 in the village of Pomburpa, Bardes, Goa, Portuguese India. He grew up by drawing and hiding his work from his family, who disapproved of it.

Navelcar joined Bombay University in 1950 and was admitted to the Wardha University to study Hindustani (Hindi) and Urdu. He gained his SSCE and SSC in 1954 and decided not to continue to study medicine as he wanted to pursue arts by then. Returning to Goa, he secured a job with the Chowgule Company as an accountant and continued to produce his art work in his spare time, which was noticed and admired by his colleagues. After being asked by Chowgule, the owner of the company, to do some portraits of dignitaries of the time, including Paulo Bénard Guedes, who was the Governor-General of Portuguese India in 1953, his work was noticed. Guedes asked him to draw a portrait of Dr António de Oliveira Salazar, the then Prime Minister of Portugal, and subsequently awarded him a scholarship to study art in Portugal.

Time went by with many rewards and achievements in his art, expanding his talent and trying out new techniques including collages, ceramics, sculptures in metal, wood and other materials. He made many murals and large paintings as well as portraits of dignitaries throughout his time in Africa. He supported the local African people and became very fond of their company and their talents as well as all his students at college, never displaying any discrimination.

Death Navelcar died on 18 October 2021 at the age of 92 at a hospital in Panaji.

Artistry

Describing his work in 2012, The Times of India commented: "The ethic extends to the great Vamona Navelcar. Known for his elegant line, for epitomizing gentility, the seniormost contributor has rendered a grotesque skull-bedecked Ogre, a painting that immediately recalls Angelo da Fonseca's Apocalypse (a likewise searing vision painted after a lifetime of making serene images)."

Dr Carmo Gracias from Margao, who owns more than 20 of Navelcar's paintings along with dozens of others by other Goan and Indian artists, describes how Navelcar can quickly create a rendition of Jesus Christ. He claims that Navelcar is exquisite in his style of line drawing, in which he draws an image in a single continuous stroke while not lifting his pencil or pen.

Goan artist Bina Nayak has been quoted as having said that Navelcar is "the M.F. Hussain of Goa," likening him to the famed Indian artist.

From 23 June to 9 September 2012, Navelcar exhibited his work at the Figueiro de Vinhos gallery, in the centre of Portugal.

A Retrospective exhibition was held in Portugal from June to October 2012 curated by Vamona's long standing friend and admirer, Professor Antonino Martins Mendes.

His works were displayed from 12 December 2017 to 12 January 2018 at the Fundacao Oriente, Panjim, in an exhibition titled Goa/Portugal/Mozambique: The Many Lives of Vamona Navelcar, featuring 16 of his works. The exhibition was curated by R. Benedito Ferrão and co-hosted by the Al-Zulaij Collective; an accompanying book edited by Ferrão was released with the same title as the exhibition. That exhibition would be the last time Navelcar's art would be seen publicly while he was still alive.

Biographical works The late aeronautical engineer and UK expat Anne Ketteringham wrote a biography on Navelcar in conjunction with VS Arts. The book is called Vamona Navelcar, An Artist of Three Continents and was launched in Goa at Gallery Gitanjali, Panaji on 12 April 2013 with an exhibition of Vamona Navelcar's works from over the decades.

The book Goa/Portugal/Mozambique: The Many Lives of Vamona Navelcar (Fundação Oriente, 2017), edited by R. Benedito Ferrão, was released in 2017 in conjunction with a retrospective of the artist's work in an exhibition of the same title. The book also contains the graphic novella, The Destination is the Journey, written by Ferrão and illustrated by Navelcar; it is loosely based on the artist's life.

An extensive political biography about Navelcar written by R. Benedito Ferrão and Vishvesh Prabhakar Kandolkar appears in the Spring 2022 issue of the journal Verge: Studies in Global Asias and is titled "Canvas Adrift: Vamona Navelcar, Artist of the Unframed Ocean."

Navelcar is the subject of a 2019 documentary on his life titled I am nothing with Ronak Kamat directing it and sound editing by Ashley Fernandes.