Art Matters: The Gandhian's Gandhi

The Gandhi Ashram has organised an exhibition of paintings by artist Haku Shah to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The exhibition of paintings by 80-year-old Mr Shah -- titled "Nitya Gandhi: Living Re-living Gandhi" -- explores the various narratives that emerge from the Mahatma's life; political, religious and spiritual. 

Known for his folk-themed paintings, Mr Shah is among the nation's renowned artists and is also a recipient of Padma Shri award. The exhibition was inaugurated by K G Subramanyan, an eminent and versatile modern art artist. Mr Shah was an early student of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the MS University, Vadodara, where N S Bendre and K G Subramanyan were among his teachers.

"His concern for the tribal and folk art had a more human quality; the artisan or the craftsman as a human being was his focus and the art was its by-product. There you can see the Gandhi in him, in the concern for the lowest person," says artist Amit Ambalal. 

In Mr Shah's canvases, the images of Gandhi making salt or spinning yarn, with their vigour and abandon, surprise art historian S Kalidas. Curator Amrit Gangar celebrates the return of the colour white which underlines the austerity of the painter and his subject while the depiction of Bapu without a deh or body reminds writer Tridip Surhud of the impermanence of all form.

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The paintings are replete with plain symbolism of still life objects that bring alive Gandhi's working of the mind.