Hanif Kureshi, who popularised street art in India’s neighbourhoods, passes away at 41

Credited for taking art to the masses, to the very streets they walk, Kureshi passed away on Sunday. He was 41 and had been battling cancer.

“He played an extremely significant role in popularising street art in India and was a role model to many,” says art curator Rahul Bhattacharya. His batchmate at Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda, Bhattacharya adds, “Right from the beginning, he was not a conventional artist. He was constantly exploring new avenues.”

It was his interest in sign-board painting and hand-lettering that also led Kureshi to first explore the bylanes of India in search of street sign painters whom he began commissioning to paint alphabets in their unique styles and fonts. Realising how patronage for the art form was dwindling, he began digitising typefaces and brought them under the banner of HandpaintedType.

St+art India was visualised as a not-for-profit organisation that works on art projects in public spaces.

It was his search for neighbourhoods that would lend themselves to street art that led Kureshi to Delhi’s Lodhi Colony in 2013, on the recommendation of a friend. With its high walls and pedestrian-friendly lanes, the murals painted in the locality attracted immediate attention. This was not graffiti, associated with protest art, but an attempt to introduce India to street art, and boasted imagery in varied hues and messaging.

Gond artist Bhajju Shyam, who completed a work in Lodhi Colony in 2019, describes Kureshi as modest and courteous. “I have known him since around 2017-18. He was extremely patient and sincere. We had long discussions during the creation of the work — he would listen and offer constructive advice,” says Shyam.

Years later, Lodhi district is now often cited as India’s first art district. St+art India now organises and collaborates on art festivals across India, and has since painted murals in neighbourhoods in several cities, including Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Inviting artists from abroad as well as across India to paint, Kureshi also often wielded the brush. If Lodhi Colony has the words ‘Yaha’ and ‘Must’ (This must be the place) in a work that is a collaboration between Australian artist Georgia Hill and Kureshi, his 2017 installation for the Sassoon Dock Art Project in Mumbai “played with the idea of typography, smell and memory”.

Having exhibited his works around the world at prestigious venues and events, including the London Design Biennale, Venice Biennale and Centre Pompidou Paris, among others, the multidisciplinary artist’s solo exhibition was held in June, this year, at Wildstyle Gallery in Sweden.