Art on a pedestal

“Luckily,I have always been too busy to have a solo of my own. It is my son and my family who have pushed me to display my work for the first time. I hope it reminds the younger generation of our great leaders,” he said.

The exhibition of the Maharashtra-born sculptor consists of fibreglass casts of original works scattered across the nation. The resin-coated reproductions are decidedly kitschy in comparison with the original bronze and stone works. Sutar’s realistic portraits,however,do capture the likeness of his models.

Sutar’s statue of Gandhi in a meditative pose can be seen outside Parliament House. Another one at the exhibition is a full-length sculpture of the great leader as he marches with his stick and his pocket watch dangles from his dhoti.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is captured in his usual pensive moment. Bhagat Singh strikes a rebellious pose,while a lone bust of Indira Gandhi underlines the absence of women from this gallery of leaders.

In another corner,statues of Rajiv Gandhi capture his winning smile,while outside the gallery an inordinately large sculpture of Chhatrapati Shivaji depicts the warrior king mounted on his steed. Notably the sculptor,who shuttles between Mumbai and Noida,also has a self-portrait capturing him as a young man,carving a tribute in honour of the countless artists who worked in Khajuraho. “I’ve never looked for awards or for acknowledgment. It has been the goodwill of my gurus that has got me where I am today,” the Padmashree awarded sculptor says.

From his beginnings as a carpenter’s son,born in a small village in Maharashtra,Sutar has steadily worked his way up. His artistic journey,however,started at the Sir J J School of Art in Mumbai. He was then appointed a modeller at the Department of Archeology in the 1950’s,after which he helped restore several sculptures at the Ajanta-Ellora cave complex.

Some of his ambitious projects are a 45-foot concrete monument at the Chambal Gandhi Sagar Dam.

Many projects are in the pipeline: “My father wanted to install a statue of the Mahatma at the centre of an artificial island in Mumbai that would be as big as the Statue of Liberty. Currently the patrons want a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji,” says Anil Sutar,a trained architect who has been working alongside his father.

“While our workshop has undertaken to cast Shivaji,we intend to find other patrons for our Gandhi statue; after all he is the Father of the Nation,” says Sutar.