Past Participant

It was an art opening that had guests trooping in before time. Even as the plaques were being touched up,Ebrahim Alkazi was at Gallery Threshold to view the exhibition that brings together over three decades of work of artist Gieve Patel.

It was an art opening that had guests trooping in before time. Even as the plaques were being touched up,Ebrahim Alkazi was at Gallery Threshold to view the exhibition that brings together over three decades of work of artist Gieve Patel. The journey has been worth it, said the artist,as he looked at the display and recalled the process of sifting through his work during the last six months. I have chosen my personal favourites, he smiled.

Suspended close to the entrance is one of the oldest work in the exhibition,from 1971,graphite on paper Mourning Woman,a haunting work that captures expressions of agony. This is from a photograph I saw in the newspaper. I dont remember the exact details,but the images remained with me for a few years and that is when I decided to use them. In most of my work,the image or the incident needs to have made a long-lasting impact on me, says the Mumbai-based artist-poet-playwright,who is also a practicing general physician.

If his plays have had Parsi protagonists,in his paintings he has engaged with the marginalised. So in The Letter Home a construction worker from Andhra Pradesh dictates a letter to a scribe and in Hooch Den an elderly women,who is seemingly manager of a den,is engaged in a discussion with a prospective customer. In Near the Bus Stop,Patel paints a man with no arms being fed by a little girl. This was on a pavement in Mumbai. I thought it was a very special sight, says Patel,but adds that only issue-based art does not appeal to him. It has become common now,but I feel that it is better if issues are touched upon tangentially, he notes.

While he has been conducting poetry workshops at Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh for over a decade,earlier this year he did his bit for art education when he participated in a project conceived by friend and fellow artist Sudhir Patwardhan,when he took an exhibition across Maharashtra that comprised work of select Indian artists from the last 60 years. The aim was to show the different work produced by some celebrated artists. There can never be enough of art education,and initiatives like this are essential, observes Patel,as he prepares to be part of the faculty for the Osians art course that was announced recently. Also on the anvil is a series on wells,a subject that Patel has painted sporadically. It comes from the memories of my childhood,when I came across wells at my parents village in south Gujarat, says Patel. As artist Krishen Khanna steps into the gallery,the two engage in a detailed discussion centred around Patels bronze sculpture Eklavya. I have made something similar, observes Khanna,and the two get talking.

The exhibition at Gallery Threshold is on till October 22. Contact: 41829181

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