Jaipur-based artist Gopal Swami Khetanchi seems to have changed his style with his latest show Gandhi-giri curated by Archana B Sapra. He is known for his romantic reinterpretations of Rajput miniature and mural tradition with the nayika and other series.
The artist, as the title of the show suggests, is attempting to look at the contemporary reality through the eyes of Gandhiji. The artwork on display is neither a reinvention of or a comment on the film Lage Raho Munnabhai, though the use of the tapori term Gandhigiri does allude to Gandhi’s philosophy, vision and ideals in post-colonial digital age. “I am trying to portray the difference between India and Bharat on my canvas,” says the artist.
In a series of images, he places Gandhi amongst various situations and locales symbolising issues that the ‘Father of the Nation’ felt and wrote passionately about.
Gandhi stands in the midst of religious fundamentalist demagogues, looking helpless and lost. Similarly, he marches on alone amongst industrial and post industrial environmental degradation. Or looks on with anguish at the plight of farmers and villagers who have been left out of the globalisation of wealth creation — the very element who was integral to nation building and national economy for Gandhi.
Gandhi’s dream of an independent India, free not only from the imperial rule or domination, but also from poverty and hardships for the people, has obviously not been realised. Instead, India is divided at so many levels. Inequality and poverty are rampant and the ideals lost. The artist focuses on the marginalised people who have been left out, leading to destruction of their traditional lifestyles.
In so far as the treatment and perspective the artist’s approach is direct and straightforward. The complexity lies not in the ideas but in the composition and the painting. The paintings are made of an intricate web of images: Gandhi, people representing various communities and interests, motifs and symbols of Gandhigiri woven into a multilayered composition. Gandhi is obviously used as a symbol rather than a persona because all we see the iconic image of Gandhi in the 1930s and 1940s, the ‘Father of the Nation,’ the figure on the bank note and posters. Personal struggles and evolution are not part of ‘Gandhigiri’ though integral to making of Gandhi.
— The writer is an art historian, curator and critic