B. G. Mohammed – Mangalorean Star
It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures. – Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890)
There was a time, when artists and painters used to create masterpieces and such masterpieces are sold for a fortune today, in business houses like Sotheby’s and Christy’s.
Indian artists like M. F. Hussain are also earning a fortune by selling their works, if not creating a sensation in the media!
There are very few artists, who work silently and strive hard to prove a point, where art is really something that flows from a free mind, using real colours to sketch the true emotions that the artist has to express in his own way, never caring to think how much he could earn by selling that art piece!
We are fortunate enough to identify one such artist today, who has been dedicatedly working hard to study, draw and to teach the meaning of life through art to thousands of young people in Mangalore and the surrounds.
Bolar Gulam Mohammed, popularly known as B. G. Mohammed well deserves to be nominated as Mangalorean Star for the Month of January, 2008. B G. Mohammed was born on 11th October, 1920 in Mangalore to Dr. Mohammed Ali and Mrs. Raheem B.I.
His father was a Government doctor who was a great philosopher and humanist. He guided his son in leading a meaningful life with sacrifices and respect for all religions. He taught his son, the true meaning of co-existence, and that God is one, common for all the religions, whereas the ways of worshipping God are different!
This made B. G. Mohammed think way too deeply about the meaning of life and he lost interest in studies, when he reached SSLC in Board High School in Udupi.
After completing SSLC, he was more or less determined to learn art, and he approached Mangesh Shirali, a famous artist in Udupi through a relative. Mangesh Shirali took him as a student, but it was Narayana Padmashali, who was trained by Padukone Srinivasa Rao, the famous artist who was K.K.Hebbar’s guru too!
Under the rigorous training from Padukone Srinivasa Rao, B. G. Mohammed was molded into a good artist. The significance to be noted here is that both the teachers didn’t charge any fee for training B. G. Mohammed!
This added inspiration from his gurus and made Mr. Mohammed think about human weaknesses and tragedies in daily life, which he could see and print deep in his mind that he could retrieve later and paint the same moods with water colour or with oil paint!
He started painting real life pictures, most of the times, projecting tragic realities, human weaknesses and sufferings.
Mr. Mohammed married Mrs. Akhtar Begum from Mysore, daughter of Khuddus Sharif, an army officer in the year 1967. She is also a good artist, having trained at The Jayachamarajendra Art Institute under the able guidance of F. M. Sufi.
They have three sons, eldest being Shabbir Ali, second Kabir Ali and the youngest is Samir Ali. All the three sons are good artists. Mrs. Mohammed and Shabbir are helping Mr. Mohammed in running the B. G. M. School of Arts in Chilimbi, which is in their residential building. Kabir Ali is Architectural art designer for multiplexes and big residential complexes. Samir Ali runs B. G. M. School of Arts in Kadri.
Today, the entire family is dedicated to art and Mr. Mohammed has worked hard to maintain his reputation in Mangalore, being one of the best art teachers in Mangalore today!
He is a true humanitarian, who has served for over 60 years in the field of fine arts, teaching over 35000 young boys and girls, many of whom are great artists, if not Doctors, Engineers or Corporate Kings of repute today!
Let’s meet Mr. B. G. Mohammed, founder of B. G. M. Fine Arts and find out about him.
Q: At 88, you look very agile and healthy! What’s the secret?
Ans: I don’t drink or smoke. I don’t hate, abuse or quarrel with others. I don’t dream about big wealth. I find happiness in caring and sharing. I practice Yoga of Acharya Ramdev’s School every day. I respect all religions equally, and people from all religions likes, respects and interacts with me. What else do you need to maintain a peaceful life?
Q: That’s something unique! What inspired you to take up this profession?
Ans: It all came from my mind and emotions. I used to look at life’s realities and human sufferings and have the real picture in my mind like a scanned photo. Later, I used to draw pictures and try to show them to people. You may call me a human camera, but my hands and brushes did the painting job! I lost interest in studies because of that and begged one of my relatives to take me to good art teachers in Udupi for training.
Q: Did you take up this profession as hobby, or as livelihood?
Ans: Initially I used to draw and paint as a freelancer. Later, some of my friends like Gerald Fernandes, Harold Lasrado and Vishwanath, persuaded me to go ahead with an art school, which was named as B. G. M. Fine Arts, and we started the School in Kodialbail, in the year 1955 with only 3 students for a start, charging them Rs.5/- each, per month! Later, the demand increased and many joined in as students.
Many heads of Christian Institutions like Carmel, Lady Hill, St. Aloysius, St. Agnes and St.Annes have supported me and the nuns and fathers have shown high esteem and love for me!
Q: When did you shift the school to your present premises?
Ans: After closing the school in Kodialbail in the year 2000, my youngest son Samir started B. G. M. School of Arts in Kadri and I, along with my eldest son Shabbir and my wife Akhtar Begum, started the school here in Chilimbi, behind our house.
Q: How many students have been trained by you?
Ans: As many as 35000, as I remember, may be more! We have trained at least 200 students per month in batches.
Q: How do you train small children who don’t even understand the meaning of drawing?
Ans: See, my methods of training are different from others. Being a nature lover myself, I have learnt to interact with the children that come for training. I talk to them in their own language, understand their thinking abilities and wants, make them my friends and then teach them, a method that’s been successfully followed by me ever since I started the school in 1955! Thus they become creative without any inhibitions.
Q: Do you teach all kinds of painting and drawing?
Ans: Yes. We teach them almost all the essential basics of drawing, sketching and painting. Later, when they join a higher academy, they will be better painters!
Q: Tell me about your prominent students who are famous today.
Ans: All my students are good and talented. Out of the 35000 or more that I have trained, I remember a few extra-ordinary students who are famous as Artists, photographers or Doctors.
Yajna, Ganesh Somayaji, Kotiprasad Alva, Holla, Dr. Akhtar Hussain, Dr. Gowri Pai, Dr. Dinkar Rai, Dr. Amitha Shetty, Dr. Rajaram Rai, Dr. Krishnan, Dr. Subodh Malli and Dr. Suyajna Joshi… the list is never ending but that’s all I can say at the moment!
Out of these, Dr. Suyajna Joshi, who has his own Nursing Home in Bellary today, came from a very poor orthodox Brahmin family. His father was a great astrologer, but he was misfortunate and ailing, when Suyajna Joshi was in School. Suyajna Joshi was bubbling with talents and was extra ordinarily brilliant in studies, performing arts and painting! He was a perfectionist, and a store house of talents! He used to write a drama within half an hour and act splendidly in the Annual function of our Arts School or the school in which he studied! His paintings are true to life, and he became so dear to my heart that recently when Kotiprasad Alva of Prasad Art Gallery came with him to see me, I could not control my emotions! Today, Dr. Suyajna Joshi is a leading doctor in Bellary with his wife and two children, all doctors. He remembers me not only as his art teacher, but his guide and philosopher too! That gives me more happiness than just teaching art!
Q: You mean to say art should not be studied with only commercial angle?
Ans: It depends on who learns art and where we apply them. A famous artist like M. F. Hussain might have struggled in his initial days but he has International repute, fame and fortune today, even though he may not enjoy all that wealth personally!
The amount of happiness I get when my own students come after a long time, after they become great Doctors, Engineers, Artists or Corporate personalities is much more than money for me. True treasure is in spreading happiness and promoting talented people projecting their art, in turn spreading more happiness! Art should not be stagnant in one man’s hold. It should be fluent and priceless, at the same time it should bring out the realities of life to broader masses, often with vivid colours telling different stories! When art is measured in terms of money mass, the efforts of the painter loses the meaning, according to my belief!
Q: Apart from art, what other hobbies do you have?
Ans: I have studied Karnatic Music from Narasimha Sherigar in Udupi and I used to play Flute at Thyagaraja Keerthane in various concerts in and around Udupi those days. I never used to charge for that!
I am also interested in nature watch, gardening and interaction with children. The amount of happiness you get with nature is much more than what you get within four walls, watchin TV or gossiping around!
Q: You must have competed in many Art competitions over the years.
Ans: I don’t believe in Art Competitions and I have not contested in a single competition in my life! The simple reason is that the judges, who decide about the art pieces exhibited, are often not competent enough to understand the depth of the art!
However, I remember a student of mine who won a prize in an art competition and he came to show me his certificate. I immediately presented him with an art piece painted by me when I was almost his age, and he was very happy to receive that!
Q: Which was your major task in art work?
Ans: There was this Exhibition in Nehru Maidan, many years ago. Forest Department had their set-up within the exhibition ground, where the interior ambience of a forest was to be designed within four days. Then ACF Akbar Shah was my student and he brought the job to me. I was supposed to design a 30 ft x 60 ft setting with jungle, and various animals in the background. Using many plywood sections, I completed the job within 48 hours, much to the astonishment of The District Conservator of Forests!
Q: Do you think Digital Art has a big impact on real art?
Ans: Certainly! Today, paintings are losing demand and compared to the Seventies, now the demand has come down to 25%! Posters, banners and hoardings are printed digitally, and thousands of artists are losing their livelihood.
Q: Yet many youngsters come to you for learning art!
Ans: The reason is that a child that learns art with all the support and refinement from the teacher becomes a good human being and that in turn helps the child to behave well in a dignified society. It also helps the child in improving self in studies, debates and performing arts. That helps the child to control Blood Pressure and ailments caused by hyper thinking!
I always talk to my students in plural, giving them respect. By giving respect, we don’t lose anything. Rather we gain respect!
Q: Tell me about the most memorable situations in your life!
Ans: A scene that I saw near present Central Market area in Mangalore in the late 40’s made me draw a destitute trying to fish out left over food from a garbage bin in which, cows, dogs and crows were equal partners with the destitute.
At a later date, I was shocked to see the same man with full clothes on, standing behind me, trying to appreciate the art, at the same time holding rags from the garbage dump in his hand!
When asked, he replied that he was actually a rich man with a big house, car and wealth but he was not happy in his life. Thus, he tried to find happiness in exercising eccentricity in every day life! He was also apprehensive about the painting in which he was subject! He was ready to pay any amount to buy that painting, but I was disturbed and I didn’t agree to sell that one.
Since that day, I stopped painting bitter realities of life and started to concentrate on landscapes with normal life!
Another incidence was when Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, noted Kannada scribe had come to Udupi long ago for a function. I was very young then. A painting of Udupi Krishna Mutt and the surrounds that I did attracted his attention and he asked the organizers to bring me on to the dais. In spite of little resistance from a group of people, Swamijis and other dignitaries allowed me to meet Mr. Iyengar, who personally appreciated my painting and wished me good luck!
Q: What is your message to young Mangaloreans?
Ans: Be good to yourself, give respect and take respect irrespective of age and status, spread happiness by loving one and all irrespective of caste creed or religion. Study well and indulge yourself in sports, outdoor activities and performing arts or painting. The joy and happiness you derive out of that is much more than by earning a fortune!
May success be with you all! God bless you!
Mangalorean.com wishes Mr. B.G. Mohammed all the very best in his endeavors!
Submitted by Rajanikanth Shenoy Kudpi
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Comments:
D.THIMMAREDDY, India:
I LOVE TO KALAVATHI
swapna, mlore, India:
I Started going to B.G.M Fine arts in urvastore in my school days,i still remember the first day of my class,sir was very impressed by my drawning skills and directly gave me birds and animal sketch to do.I still remember i used to call him Ajjer Master.I used to never miss the classes.One day mom informed me that sir is no more when i came down to mlore..My heart was broken tht i couldn see him for the last time…MISS U MASTER….M proud to tell that m his student and i hve learnt under him…now i am learnin under shabir master….
P.Deepak, India:
I had the chance to meet him just a week before his passing. I went to enquire about his classes and was sad that i did not get to learn under him. right after that he passed away and then i felt it was not a good time to go. i will learn from his son though.
Shobha Varma, India:
I learnt from master when I was very young. My mother, Rajalaxmi Iyer(Wife of Gopalakrishna Iyer) was his student. I used to go to B.G.M. Fine Arts in Kodialbail, regularly after my school. I miss those times…. He came to my marriage with family and blessed me. He presented me a beautiful painting of his. Whenever I visit my parents, I used to visit B.G.M. Master and his family, with my husband, Balakrishna Varma. My husband is also an artist. And master used to give him some technical advice on paintings. We love and respect him a lot….Miss him so much.
abdul munaf, UAE:
GOOD TO NOW ABOUT B.G. MOHAMMOD HE IS GREAT PERSON. I WOULD LIKE TO SENT MY CHILD TO LEARN ABOUT ART.
gaurav, India:
so sweet.
shiva, India:
Having such a small workshop at kodialbail, he has produced excellent masterpeices and trained good hands to play with colors!!
Mayura, India:
Its very true, when BGM sir says his training methods are different..As a child when I joined the drawing class at Chillimbi, I was a very bashful child..Would hardly talk or express. Talking to each one of us in our own mother tongue, he would talk to me in Konkani, to other friends in Tulu, to some others in Kannada,thus make us comfortable. To me he has always been B Govinda Mallya..as he introduced him to myself when I asked his full name,as a child. I can never forget the stories he used to tell us when we were fatigued in between the classes,as children (jungle stories, where the tiger feared him and made way for him). I can go on and on about all this.
Two years back when I visited him, I see that he is still painting, at this age.
I am proud to be his student, and he has always been a star, enlivening us always.
Simon Lasrado, India:
I was the student of Mr.BG Mahammad in the year 1967 when he was running his art classes in a small building near PVS building.He had taught me char coal and pencil art.Once I met him in his new house somewhere in 1994, he could not recognise me bcoz I too became old then! He inspired me a lot in pencil art.I’m very grateful to him and wish him good health and long life though he is quite old now.
Venugopal Rai, Canada:
BGM has been one of my inspiring role models. I am proud to be his student and I am really happy that Mangalore has rightly identified this rare gem.
Venu Rai,
Toronto