Artists paint a protest for Narmada

Anand Patwardhan, one of the organisers of the show, which has been building up over the last eight-odd months, said: “We were expecting some 30-40 works… But we’ve had such a fantastic response, we will be now be holding theexhibition in more than one art gallery.” While some artists donated their older works, others created works specially for the exhibition. Like Atul Dodiya, who donated his Crossing the Narmada, 1930, depicting M K Gandhi walking across the river.

Said Dodiya, who derived the image from an earlier photograph, “The context within which Gandhi was crossing the river may have changed, but the river is still the same. It seemed apt for this moment.” “Displacement”, he added, “is just not about losing food, clothing, shelter. It’s about being torn away from one’s land, from nature.” Added Nalini Malani, who picked out her 1991 work based on a chapter from the Bhagwatam, “This is a work I had liked immensely, and hadn’t sold at previous exhibitions. I thought it fitting that I should part with it for this cause.”

“My way of expressing solidarity with the struggle was through paint,” said Altaf, whose Portrait of an Ongoing Struggle will be part of the show. Although the artists seemed only faintlyoptimistic that the show would create ripples beyond the walls of the buyers’ homes, Dodiya opined: “Given that so many artists have come together, the show will definitely have an impact. This is no loud protest where we have taken to the streets, it is a silent movement.”