Janardan Dattatraya Gondhalekar (21 April 1909 – 4 December 1981) was an Indian painter, administrator and scholar of Indian & Western Art. He served as the dean of Sir J. J. School of Art from 1953 to 1957.
J. D. Gondhalekar is known for his portrait paintings and sketches on various subjects. He also gave lectures on art, wrote about it and played the flute.
Early life and education
Gondhalekar was born to Dattatraya and Gangabai on 21 April 1909. His family owned a printing business and was well-settled in Pune. He attended primary and secondary school at the Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya in Pune. After completing his matriculation in 1926, he joined Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai. In 1931, Gondhalekar obtained his G. D. in Art. As a student here, he won number of prizes and scholarships. These include a bronze medal and a scholarship for mural decoration from 1931 to 1933. His peers at the Sir J. J. School of Art included Gopal Deuskar, Angela Trindade and Ambika Dhurandhar.
Gondhalekar then conducted private art classes in Pune from 1934 to 1937, which was followed by a sojourn to England for higher education. He completed his Diploma in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Additionally, he also studied wood engraving and etching at Central School of Art and Craft from 1937 to 1939.
Career
After returning to India, Gondhalekar painted murals for the Nawab of Palanpur State. Between 1940 and 1948, he worked as an art director at Brilliant Pictures and Navyug Film Company in Pune. Some of these films include Municipality (1941), Tujhach (1942), Pahili Mangalagaur (1942), Pundalik (1944), Naya Tarana (1944) and Din Raat (1946). After the closure of Navyug Film Company, he stayed in Delhi for a few years. In 1950, he received a fellowship from UNESCO to study the nuances of art preservation and restoration at Laboratoire central des Musées de Belgique in Belgium.
Administration
Gondhalekar was appointed as the dean of Sir J. J. School of Art in 1953. During his tenure, he implemented new schemes in art education and undertook several new activities. Firstly, he organized the inaugural State Art Exhibition in 1953 of the then Bombay State with an intention to improve art education at schools and colleges. Secondly, based on his experience in Europe, he suggested pedagogical changes at the school which had a marked departure from the existing norms. Meanwhile, the centenary of Sir J. J. School of Art was celebrated with grandeur in 1957. Around this time, the Government of Bombay was planning to divide the school of art into three separate institutions. Gondhalekar opposed this proposal and eventually resigned from his post as the government remained firm on their decision.
Gondhalekar was appointed as a member on many art committees of government and autonomous organizations such as University of Bombay Centenary Celebrations Committee, Sampat Memorial Prize Committee, jury of National Exhibition of Art by Lalit Kala Akademi in 1957 and Board of Trustees at the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India from 1953 to 1954 & 1956 to 1958. Additionally, he delivered art related lectures on Indian and western radio.
Publishing
It was in 1959 that the Bennett, Coleman & Company had appointed Gondhalekar as an Art Director for their newspaper The Times of India. Here, he experimented with the design by combining fine art and applied art together in order to make the newspaper more attractive. After the contract with The Times of India terminated in 1964, the Government of Maharashtra appointed him as Art Editor of the Marathi Vishwakosh in the following year. Under his guidance, the introductory volume of the same was published in 1965. Between 1965 and 1971, he also wrote several scholarly entries on several artistic traditions for encyclopedia.
With an intention to raise awareness about the art tradition of Maharashtra, a project to restore the 18th-century murals in the palace of Nana Fadnavis at Menavali, Wai was undertaken by Directorate of Arts, Maharashtra State. It was started in 1978 under the aegis of Baburao Sadwelkar and able guidance of Gondhalekar. The main purpose of the project was to preserve and document the frescos by creating their replicas. The responsibility of this project was entrusted to Gondhalekar who had to implement it with the support of faculty and students of Sir J. J. School of Art. However, the project failed to take off due to the non-cooperation of the stakeholders. Nonetheless, Gondhalekar submitted his report titled Project Menavali in the form of a 121-page long research paper to the government in 1980.