Journalism of Courage
Artist Satish Gujral self-portrait is now a Rs 5 stamp
The stamp by the Department of Posts, shows Gujral sitting on a sofa holding a paintbrush. with his face and arms painted in black and white, giving the composition a photo-realistic finish to mark artist centenary
A 25-stamp Centenary Edition (Photo by Raseel Gujral Art Legacy)
Modernist Satish Gujral only ever painted four rarely seen self portraits in his seven-decade-long career. One of them will now enter public circulation in the form of a postage stamp, which the Department of Posts, Government of India released on Monday to commemorate the modern master’s centenary.
Painted in 2010, it shows a confident Gujral sitting on a sofa holding a paintbrush. The palette is quintessentially his — rich and colourful — but his face and arms are painted in black and white, giving the composition a photo-realistic finish.
Gujral didn’t make many portraits during his career. One of his first portraits was that of Lala Lajpat Rai, commissioned by a committee for the Parliament. It was a breakthrough moment not because it was appreciated but because it got rejected. Word reached Jawaharlal Nehru, who asked to see the work. Impressed, he commissioned Gujral to make portraits of himself and his daughter Indira Gandhi. “That started a spark. Then, he made a few more portraits — one each of his parents, my mother, me and my sister. He also painted his first self-portrait in the 1950s,” said the artist’s daughter and interior designer Raseel Gujral.
The self-portrait featured in the stamp was gifted to Raseel by the artist in 2013. It currently hangs in the living room of her home in Delhi, besides the portrait of her mother, Kiran Gujral, also painted by him.
Satish Gujral’s 2010 self-portrait that inspired the commemorative stamp. (Photo by Raseel Gujral Art Legacy)
The ministry’s decision to make an image long confined to a private family wall accessible to the entire nation is a fitting tribute to an artist who resisted self-glorification.
“The first time I saw the portrait, I remember him feeling a little self-conscious about the way it was painted and him talking about being bourgeois, pretentious and pompous because generally a portrait is painted to aggrandise,” Raseel recalls.
Gujral lost his hearing at the age of eight. While his work repeatedly returned to themes of trauma, he was never the centre of the narrative. Best known for his poignant works on Partition, he never made himself the subject despite having experienced the tragedy himself. He was also an architect and a sculptor and while his artistic sensibilities drew from deeply personal experiences, it was never boastful.
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Gujral’s association with the Department of post goes further back than this honour. In 1996, he designed the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) stamp for their 125th Anniversary. He chose a spiral form to symbolize the universal flow of communication—an abstract, sculptural motif rather than a literal depiction of telecommunication. A year before he passed away in 2020, he designed the Financial Inclusion commemorative postage stamp, which celebrated India’s commitment to expanding equitable access to formal financial services. The composition brought together the Indian Rupee symbol, a horse representing strength and forward movement.
The stamp unveiling was also accompanied by an exhibition of the original artworks that have inspired the commemorative stamp and the first-day cover, which is also based on one of Gujral’s artworks.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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