Gieve Patel is a poet, physician, playwright and painter all rolled into one, and a retrospective of his works at Chemould Gallery, Mumbai, from the 1970s to 2007 is evidence of how he’s managed to skilfully juggle all these varied interests. Perhaps what helps is that he believes each one is separate and independent of the other. He’s never tried to be multi-disciplinary and sees each discipline as wholly integrated by itself.

The show comprises early sketches, paintings and sculpture – all marked by the artist’s eye for the ordinary and commonplace. His early sketches from the 70s, for instance, are portraits of women, whose pictures he’d seen in newspapers, probably in connection with the Kashmir issue. They are all in various postures of mourning and what stands out are their eyes filled with fear, sadness or just plain grief.

Gieve’s paintings, all vibrant acrylic on canvas, are inspired by Mumbai, the city he lives in. They are slices of street life and capture rather touching moments between people in a city that’s over-crowded and chaotic. “Near the Bus Stop” for instance, shows a limbless man being fed by a young girl, possibly his daughter, while “The Letter Home” captures a young illiterate boy dictating to a man next to him with pen in hand. “Stroll” shows a child sitting on an adult’s shoulders against a looming cityscape backdrop. Also of interest to the artist is the ship-building area in the south of Mumbai, a strange space of semi-urbanisation. In “Ship Building in Mumbai”, four figures (and dog) stand in the foreground, while the city can be seen far in the distance.

All his paintings are, however, not this calm and pastoral. Several works capture crows tearing at a carcass or debris, another is an engraving of a death mask of a politician. In some paintings Gieve captures the rare quietness and desolation in Mumbai – “Bicyclist in a Field” shows serene yellow fields in the background ready for harvest, “Lighted Platform” is an image of an empty railway platform at Victoria, “Peacock at Nariman Point” shows a beautifully coloured bird held carefully by its keeper against a sky of blue.

The sculptural work on display is evidence of Gieve’s interest in mythology – both Hindu and Greek. He juxtaposes the story of Daphne and Eklavya to surprisingly moving results. According to Greek mythology, Apollo chased the beautiful nymph Daphne who, after pleading to the river god Gaia for help, is transformed into a laurel tree. The prince’s infatuation is caused by an arrow from the mischevious Cupid.

In the Mahabharata, Eklavya is a young lower caste prince who has to chop off his thumb in order to not exceed Arjuna’s (a Pandava prince) skill in archery. Gieve’s bronze sculpture “Daphne” shows the nymph after she has transformed – oddly enough, the medium looks extremely wood-like, achieving bark’s roughness and curves. More moving, however, is the Eklavya series of hands, each cast either with a thumb missing or broken. Perhaps this is where Gieve’s physician profession peeks through –  the hands and beautifully and disturbingly delicate and life-like.

 

The retrospective offers a good chance for you to catch up on one of the country’s most talented and understated artists.