A truly multi-faceted art practitioner, Satish Gujral has worked in a wide array of media and has explored diverse forms in painting, metal and burnt wood sculptures, murals, public art and architecture.
Human suffering central to his practice in the beginning gradually gave way to a feel of tranquility and peace. He was more inspired by the jubilant aspects of human life than its pain and misery from around 1960s onward. No surprise, he envisioned hope in actions, and chose to depict them in a descriptive mode, leaving behind a touch of enigma.
An accompanying note to 'Eyes on Life: Drawings of Satish Gujral', an exhibit hosted late last year at Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata stated: “Satish Gujral makes the fascinating figures heroic not out of any sense of grand achievement, but out of their plain admission of the rather ordinary and unassuming gestures. It’s precisely this quality, which makes them so special, so buoyant for the artist.”
So what’ s the secret of his passion to create diverse forms of art? “When you are consistently engaged in creative activity, it fills you up with a zest to carry on. I neither give titles nor ideas, so that you (the viewers) need to find your own truth,” he has once stated. “I wouldn’t say I am a modernist or traditionalist. I just believe in what I see.”
According to him, an artist’s style becomes his identity, but it cannot be stretched beyond a point. Summing up the spirit of his continual quest for excellence, Satish Gujral quips: “Novelty challenges the mind; it makes you think. One can discover new things every day, everywhere. The acceptance of one style only nudged me to find something I had not as yet experimented with, one that may refresh my excitement. Personal excitement is what I seek to get out of my creativity...”
In recognition of his artistic achievements the President of India honored him with the second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan, in 1999.
Human suffering central to his practice in the beginning gradually gave way to a feel of tranquility and peace. He was more inspired by the jubilant aspects of human life than its pain and misery from around 1960s onward. No surprise, he envisioned hope in actions, and chose to depict them in a descriptive mode, leaving behind a touch of enigma.
An accompanying note to 'Eyes on Life: Drawings of Satish Gujral', an exhibit hosted late last year at Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata stated: “Satish Gujral makes the fascinating figures heroic not out of any sense of grand achievement, but out of their plain admission of the rather ordinary and unassuming gestures. It’s precisely this quality, which makes them so special, so buoyant for the artist.”
So what’ s the secret of his passion to create diverse forms of art? “When you are consistently engaged in creative activity, it fills you up with a zest to carry on. I neither give titles nor ideas, so that you (the viewers) need to find your own truth,” he has once stated. “I wouldn’t say I am a modernist or traditionalist. I just believe in what I see.”
According to him, an artist’s style becomes his identity, but it cannot be stretched beyond a point. Summing up the spirit of his continual quest for excellence, Satish Gujral quips: “Novelty challenges the mind; it makes you think. One can discover new things every day, everywhere. The acceptance of one style only nudged me to find something I had not as yet experimented with, one that may refresh my excitement. Personal excitement is what I seek to get out of my creativity...”
In recognition of his artistic achievements the President of India honored him with the second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan, in 1999.
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