'Celebrating Dashrath Patel (1927–2010)' is a landmark exhibition honoring one of India’s most versatile and influential modern masters. This exhibition brings together a rare collection of Dashrath Patel’s early paintings, works of immense historical significance and exceptional artistic depth.
A visionary who shaped the post-Independence visual landscape of India, Dashrath Patel was a polymath whose contributions spanned painting, photography, ceramics, sculpture, product design, exhibition design, and architecture. Often described as a “visual genius” and a “national treasure,” Patel dedicated over six decades to expanding the boundaries of art and design in India. His early oils, many from the 1950s-capture an India in transition, rendered through thick impasto, dynamic brushwork, and a deeply intuitive sense of colour and form. As a founding member at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad (1961–1980), he shaped generations of designers and collaborated with global visionaries such as Charles and Ray Eames, Frei Otto, Buckminster Fuller, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. His work in photography, ceramics, rural design, and exhibition design stands as a testament to a mind constantly pushing the boundaries of form, craft, and communication.
The exhibition is curated by Sadanand Menon, cultural critic, writer, and long-time collaborator of Dashrath Patel. Menon, who curated the seminal retrospective of Dashrath ‘In the Realm of the Visual’ at the National Gallery of Modern Art (1998–99), brings an unparalleled understanding of Patel’s practice and legacy. Through his curatorial lens, the show situates Patel not only as a pioneering modernist but as a foundational figure in Indian design education, studio pottery, and photographic documentation.