In News
Some early comments on his work
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'Silpi'
January 1948
An exhibition of the paintings, drawings and sculpture of B. Sanyal, Director of Lahore School of Fine Arts and his associates Dhanraj Bhagat, Prannath Mago, A.N. Sehgal and Damayanti Chowla was opened here on November, 28, by the Hon’ble Mr. N.V. Gadgil.
Prannath Mago, who received his diploma in fine arts from Sir J.J. School of Arts two years back, is an artist with a strong individuality of his own. All his pictures, nine in all, are highly decorative designs–akin to the mural tradition of India. He does not make special efforts to go and seek subjects for his canvases. The ordinary everyday village and town scenes; “Bo Kata” (No.54), “Midday Story” (No.52), “Obstinate Bull” (No.57), “Bathing Buffaloes” (No.58) are sufficiently interesting subjects for him and how really satisfying they become in the hands of a competent artist like Mago!!
'The Illustrated Weekly of India'
29.8.1948
In Mago’s ‘Kite Flying’ and ‘Buffaloes Bathing’ we see the young painter’s gay outlook on life and his virile style as a painter. Only a youthful artist with a zest for life would find inspiration for his art in these every day scenes of village life. The technical treatment of these paintings is excellent and shows how with more practice and experience he might develop into a first-rate painter.
'The Sunday News of India'
12.12.1948
This artist from Delhi treats form in the self-willed manner and is not dictated to by the usual rules of anatomy. That in spite of this his drawing is good is proved in this well-knit composition and the convincing rhythm of the drummers and of the group as a whole. Even his brushstrokes are drawn into his rhythmical movement.
'The Statesman'
29.1.1949
The one outstanding exception is Pran Nath Mago whose composition of three seated girls is the most outstanding picture in the exhibition–bold, original, confident..
'India Weekly'
15.5.1949
Pran Nath Mago is perhaps the only one among the younger generation of talented artists in our country who steer clear of all these gratuitous labels and yet the value of whose work as we shall show, securely rests on some fundamental universally accepted principles.
In ‘Bathing Buffaloes‘ Mr Mago shows a bold and decisive draughtsmanship. The whole canvas throbs with the rhythmic movement of the vigorous brush work. In ‘That’s Mine ‘ Mr Mago is at his best.
The pair of shoes, the turban and the jumping dog bear witness to the sparkling humor of the artist.
In fact, Mr Mago has really caught a tumultuous moment from the “Flux” of everyday life.
'Delhi Times'
2.12.1949
Pran Nath Mago has probably entered the phase of romanticism. His Jantar Mantar version is a superb harmony in colours….
The whole picture is drunk with moonlight as the young pair that demurs in a corner crystallises the lunar effect. In the ‘Village Elders’, he portrays in a convincing way, the ageing batch, their mental repose is accentuated by the presence of hookah and a sleeping dog curling inside into tail.
'The People', New Delhi
12.4.1950
Pran Nath Mago’s ‘Mourners’ has (a) classical quality. Whatever the attitude of the art lover towards the subject of mourning, that attitude is reflected in the painting. If you think there is something poetical about mourning, it is there. If, on the contrary, you think that mourning is an absurd thing, there is nothing in the painting to dissuade you from thinking so.
'Modern Indian Painting’, by P.R. Ramachandra Rao
1953
The art of Prannath Mago shows continuous development; despite his preoccupation with his environment, his paintings have abiding, elemental qualities beyond their contextual references. There is no question but he has been influenced by Van Gogh down to the idiosyncracy of his brush work; yet, Mago has preserved in his intrepid paintings a heavily accented personal soul. The organisation of intuitive forms into evocative patterns of structural verve is all his own; his fine, decorative sense is wholly devoid of mawkishness. Inspired by the lamentation at his father’s death, his rhythmic ‘Mourners’ (Plate 171) is a figurative composition of extreme sensibility; the architectural groups of twin mourners effectively sustain the disconsolate subject of their compassion in the centre of the piece. His emotive formulation of pictorial components is best exemplified by his ‘Bathing Buffaloes’ (Plate 172), a flowing design of truant boys astride the disporting animals; movement is implicit in the very treatment and atmosphere. The architectonics of his otherwise vibrant ‘Drummers’ at a rural festival is somewhat upset by the oversized drum-heads which all but obscure the background of animated spectators. A picture of vigour, his striding ‘Rice Planters’ (Plate 173), stubborn, muscular figures in muddy fields, has a dynamic energy, heightened by its rich colouring; a perfect foil, his ‘Mid-day Story’ is a reposeful picture of attentive listeners.
'Marg', Deepawali
1954
A painter with a superior sense of design. His colours are mellow, he creates a world which is quiet and pastoral. His method of working shows a delight in the handling of impastos of paint. Indeed the shadows created by his thick laden brush often contribute towards the final effect of his tones. Prannath Mago brings a gentle and suave treatment to an art of the earth and its people.
'The Statesman', New Delhi
12.6.1954
Mago’s sketches are full of character and definition. His studies of ‘Hill Men’ are very well drawn. His sketch of a ‘Fir Tree’ has a naturalness all its own, with the feel of crawling branches about it. His sketches of mourners have both verve and brevity.
'The Studio', London
March 1956
Mago once used to effect nervous modernity in the manner of Van Gogh whose work he has of course known only through reproductions. But soon he discarded it and evolved an individual idiom. He has since painted some highly inspired landscapes and figure compositions in which the stress is on stark simplification of form. Though his landscapes may look stylised, they have a movement and atmosphere of their own.
'Marg'
March 1957
If the personality of the painter is demonstrated through his art Mago’s work evinces a meticulous mind, keen and alive to precise total balance and linear rhythm. In his earlier output he was experimenting with the Pahari palette and a post impressionist handling. His paint is applied so heavily that the shadow of it sometimes functions in place of line. His patterns are rich and decorative yet not so ornate as to disturb the movement of form. His landscapes, particularly, as figures in landscape, show his work at its best. Here the heavy paint textures, which with the European impressionists is a matter of urgency and impetuosity, is, with this artist, a carefully cultivated style. His colours are warm and rich with dominating yellows and browns, orange and green. His manner is more formal than emotional, carefully constructed than casual.
'The Statesman'
March 1958
Mr Pran Nath Mago hangs two designs which he made for a mural commemorating Jallianwala Bagh. Their excellence springs instantly to the eye.
'The Times of India'
March 1958
He is showing here two mural drawings done in pencil and charcoal entitled ‘Jallianwala Bagh’. These have been composed with remarkable facility. The drawing is firm and mature.
'Design'
March 1958
His two murals, Jallianwala Bagh done in pencil and charcoal, are striking in the sweep and balance of their composition and reflect the firmness of his line work.
‘Introduction to Indian Art’, by Ananda Coomaraswamy, edited by Mulk Raj Anand
1956
A parallel development was witnessed in Western India, where the younger painters were emancipating themselves from the naturalistic teaching of Professor Gladstone Solomon and groping towards a genuinely individual search for content and form. Hebbar, Chavda, Hussain, Rawal and quite a few younger artists have experimented successfully in the synthesis of Indian and European techniques in Bombay. Gujral, Kulkarni, Sanyal, Bhagat, Mago and Kanwal Krishna approached their problems in a similar manner in the north.
'Five Thousand Years of Indian Art’, by Hermann Goetz
March 1964
A simple, but expressive manner prevails in the later pictures of Jaya Appasamy, B. Prabha, Ratna Mathur Fabri, Damyanti Chawla, Pran Nath Mago.
‘My Contemporaries’, by G. Venkatachalam
1966
But there are “Moderns” who do not go to the extremes but who are sane and normal artists, and not some special kind of perverts. In their art some of the wild dreams and tempestuous techniques of the extremists find an intelligible and rational expression. One such young ‘Modern’ among the rising generation of Indian painters is Pran Nath….
In Mago’s paintings we see such influences most markedly. It does not mean that he has slavishly copied the great masters whom he admires, but only that he is experimenting in those styles and media to discover his own. All art is experimentation and he is truly a good artist who is both eclectic and traditional. Tradition is a great factor in art–“a revolutionary factor in art.” —as Roger Fry would put it.