Every bond we know in life comes with its own terms and conditions. Friendship is perhaps the only one that simply accepts you as you are. No adjustments or impractical expectations. It meanders through your life, lifting you up when you so need it. It is only natural then, that many artworks in history have captured the spirit of this beautiful bond and continue to do so. From paintings to sculptures to collaborations between artists, friendship has been celebrated in art in more ways than one. In a world so fragmented by wars and differences, this bond provides that glimmer of hope and makes us stop looking at our fellow beings as strangers.
Although a new phenomenon, proclaimed by the United Nations only in 2011, International Friendship Day on July 30 is an initiative to foster warm ties between people, communities, cultures, and countries. Here’s a look at artworks that have honoured this endearing emotion.
The power of female friendships
If Picasso portrayed bromance, our very own Raja Ravi Varma, the father of Indian art, depicted the strong bond of friendship and mutual support among women in his artworks. In his iconic painting, ‘Shakuntala’, he shows the beautiful friendship between Shakuntala and her two friends, Anasuya and Priyamvada. The bond between them played a significant role in the life of Shakuntala, and as most female friendships do, stood by her in matters of the heart. These inseparable friends are not just background characters in his painting or her life, but consistently support her romance with King Dushyantha, helping with the initial meetings between the two lovers.
In one of his paintings, Shakuntala is seen writing a love letter to the king, aided by her friend. In another, she is seen in a forest with her friends, pretending to pluck a thorn off her foot, while looking out with yearning for her beloved king. However subtly said, it is clear that the narrative could not have ever been this powerful without the visual message of friendship in it.
The tragedy of friendship
To the art illiterate world, Picasso is the artist who gained fame with his extreme distortions of form. And yet, no one can deny the beauty with which he presented the varied emotions of these forms. In 1908, he painted ‘Friendship,’ in what is known as the Analytical Cubism style; and although there have been varied interpretations, the fact remains that the underlying concept is amity.
Pablo Picasso had many close friends in his lifetime, but the one who deeply impacted him in his early years was Carles Casagemas, the Spanish artist with whom he shared a studio. The young men soon became great friends, frequenting cafes and bars together, although Picasso was always way ahead of his best friend, especially when it came to his popularity with women.
In 1901, Casagemas fell in love with a beautiful model, Germaine Pichot, who, along with her sister and friend, was a part of Picasso’s circle, and his unrequited love led him on the downhill path of self-destruction with alcohol and depression. When he proposed his love to her at a party in 1903, and had to face a humiliating public rejection, he shot himself fatally, with Picasso as a witness, along with others. The tragic loss of his best friend not only completely shattered Picasso, but also filled him with guilt for striking up a relationship with Germaine. These unexpressed emotions may have found their way into his canvas when he painted ‘Friendship’ a few years later.
The feel of companionship
If male artists made visual representations of camaraderie, leave it to a woman to explore the depths of how friendship feels. That is exactly what American artist Agnes Martin did when she made her abstract painting titled ‘Friendship’ in 1963. The artist’s journey, from her early period, has encompassed several styles of painting — from figurative to Rothko-style colour
fields and surrealism. Eventually, she found her language in the style that her painting ‘Friendship’ is all about. Martin covered a layer of paint with a thin layer of gold leaf and then scratched the surface to reveal the paint underneath.The result is nothing short of mesmerising — a metaphor for the unconscious brought forth and revealed! ‘Friendship’ is primarily Agnes Martin’s answer to five decades of her investigations into inner sensations. Her canvas is what the feeling of friendship looks like. Perhaps, in her quest to make emotions visible, she scratched the surface of her canvas with hand-drawn lines that reeked of human errors, to bring out its soul. The purpose of art, it is said, is to make you feel. And this piece of art by Agnes Martin does just that — it shows us the sensation of such a bond — warm, non-judgmental of imperfections, and radiant.
Many such masterpieces in art history brilliantly capture the splendour of human connections. Human beings have never lived in isolation. We are meant to thrive in communities. Forging friendships is essential for our evolution. It teaches us to overlook flaws and embrace the positives, and this is what the world so badly needs today. May these visual odes live on in our memories and our hearts like true friends do!