1967

An Adopted Home, Luxembourg

Written by Raman Sehgal

‘As an artist, my father felt emotionally happy living and working in the country’s gentle climate of peaceful tolerance, respect for human freedom and equality. His creative spirit felt secure there.” Writes Raman Sehgal. His journey of adopting Luxembourg as his second home began in the 1960s, in India. It was India’s eventful history, diverse culture and social fabric that remained the primary inspiration for his creative work.

Although he worked predominantly in India until the 1960s, as an artist he had become aware of the importance of cultivating appreciation for his art abroad.

The word of the arrival of a new Indian sculptor spread quickly in art circles. During his exhibition in Belgrade, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris sent a committee of three people to view my father’s work.

Based on the committee’s recommendation, he was offered a solo show at the prestigious Parisian institution. Jean Cassou, the renowned French art critic, writer and the first director of the museum, was greatly taken by his art and extended his influential support that proved hugely beneficial in enhancing the perception of my father’s work. He saw my father’s portrayals as pertinent and emotionally moving, and expressed this reverence in his review (translated from the French): “One cannot but be deeply impressed by Indian sculptor Amar Nath Sehgal’s expressive power, a power invested with a great mildness, rather pliable and insinuate than percussive – but irresistible. This is due (we should like to insist on that point) to all the affective drama with which it is loaded.

Sehgal’s art invites us to take part, forces us to admit and take for ourselves the conflicts, crises and anguish with which it is loaded. Sehgal’s art is, therefore, always full of meaning and great ideas which play a part, not in the abstract philosophical systems or in the comedy of concepts, but rather in the tragedy of man and his destiny. These ideas can be identified with passions. They are perceptible and stir us to the deepest of our being.”

His solo exhibition at the Musée d’Histoire et d’Art Luxembourg in 1966 was a big success. In late 1967 did he manage to arrange a small exhibition at the Galerie Brasseur in Luxembourg. This was followed by another solo show at the Flemish Akademi of Art in Antwerp, Belgium.

During these numerous visits to the Grand Duchy, my father used to stay with close friends or in familiar hotels. Over time, he began to feel the need for a place of his own, a place to work and create, a home base in Europe. In 1982, he realized his dream and established a residence in Luxembourg.

In spite of the country’s proud sense of identity – its language, its strong link to a historic past and culture, all so different from those of his origins – my father enjoyed a unique sense of closeness and bonding with local Luxembourgers. It was a comfortable relationship that was to remain with him till his last days.

With a view of helping young artists in both Europe and India, my father wanted to facilitate a cross-cultural exchange between the different regions. To accomplish this, in 1986 he set up a charitable foundation in Luxembourg – ‘The Creative Fund’.

The foundation’s primary objective was to provide scholarships to deserving candidates in Luxembourg and India to enable them to travel to each other’s country and become exposed to their art culture.

Artist with former Prime Minister Pierre Werner, Luxembourg

His life in Luxembourg was parallel to the one in India. He continued to work in both countries till the last few years of his life. Luxembourg offered him the solace he was in search for, the patrons who encouraged his art that was less understood in India, and gave him the exposure he yearned for conversing with like-minded artists, officials and curators of all kinds. He developed a home and studio in Luxembourg that he had grown to love.