*A tribute to artist Satish Gujral who passed away on March 27
Much before I started writing about art and architecture, I read about Satish Gujral. And as a teenager, craned my neck from the window of a taxi to catch a glimpse of the glorious Belgian embassy he had designed in Delhi. Something about his work gave me a sense of completion, fulfilment and peace mixed with a deep hunger for life. His murals, his masterful use of full-bodied geometry, diverse materials and colours that seemed kiln baked evoked in me the need to do something with my hands, my spirit and my life.
He was a seeker and nothing came in the way of this seeking.
Not a hearing impairment. Or ill health.
Later, I realised how his work was a perfect amalgamation of what life and death had taught him and what his proximity to masters like Diego Rivera had brought to him. From Rivera, he possibly learnt to express emotion at a scale the human eye could not absorb in one glance.
His work spanned the agony of the displaced during Partition and in a way, the power, beauty and healing that India aspired to post independence. He was a master articulator of all that India was and could be. And in him, we have lost someone who taught us to learn from the horrors of the past and to create a sense of nationhood based on creativity rather than destruction.