Octogenarian painter Prafull Dave reflects on taking his canvases online for the first time ever

The Indian-origin Zurich-based artist’s latest exhibition called ‘Into The Light’ is being showcased online by Mumbai’s Chemould Prescott Road gallery

One would imagine Prafull Dave, the 87-year-old contemporary painter, might prefer the traditional way of viewing art at the gallery — with people seeing works in the flesh, enjoying wine and cheese, and sharing reactions with the artist. But Dave is one who accepts change willingly. For the first time in a career spanning over six decades, the artist will showcase his work to people remotely from his studio in Zurich, through a virtual exhibition titled ‘Into The Light’, presented by Mumbai's Chemould Prescott Road Gallery. 

“It makes no difference from physical to online for me. We all know that the system has changed. You can go anywhere in the world and view the paintings that are in Switzerland,” notes the Gujarat-born artist, speaking from his home. Dave informs that the 16 pigments-on-canvas works —all of which revolve around the theme of moving from darkness to light — are literally in his art studio right now. 

“It is a big change that the viewer can sit in their house and view everything around the world and experience it in the virtual space now. There are art galleries in New York, Mumbai, Kathmandu, Tokyo and Hong Kong and people can view them all online,” he says, reflecting on the present moment of transformation and democratisation in art viewing. “I think it would give a chance to art-minded people to explore more.”

Now, the fact that the exhibition is being showcased by Chemould Prescott Road is a story that goes back in time. It comes from a longstanding relationship, starting in the 1960s, with the Gandhy family who own the art gallery in Mumbai. His second solo show had been at the Fort gallery with Kekoo and Khorshed Gandhy in 1969, followed by another one in 1970. 

Prafull Dave Untitled 13, 1991, Pigments on canvas, 50 x 50 cm, 19.6 x 19.6 inches. Photo: Chemould Prescott Gallery 

While Shireen Gandhy is currently managing the gallery, the possibility of an exhibition came to life through her sister Rashna, who saw a selection of Dave’s paintings while visiting him in Switzerland in 2020. “I know Shireen’s father for a long time and so it was my old friendship with him that made them think about it. Shireen’s sister Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy visited my gallery and said you have all these paintings here to show - to which I said, but all the galleries are closed around the world,” says Dave. That is when she suggested he could showcase them via the Chemould Prescott Gallery in an online experience, which though not physical would still be immersive. 

“Being a transpersonal psychologist myself, I have always been fascinated by Prafull’s paintings and by his explorations into the transpersonal realm. He compares the visions that manifest in his works as being part of what the Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung called the ‘collective unconscious’ or the dream state; a transpersonal state shared by all of humanity,” Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy explains in a press note. “This archetypal energy is where we discover cosmic forms of impersonal origin. This is why Prafull’s paintings have no title as the oneness of all beings, shunyata, the voidness that constitutes ultimate reality, is his creative source. The paintings exude an ambience of peace and demand contemplation.”

After their meeting, the virtual exhibition was organised by curator Jacqueline Burckhardt, an eminent art historian and co-founder and editor of the art magazine Parkett in Zurich. That is how it saw the light of day. Ask Dave, who moved to Zurich in 1970, what the inspiration was behind these paintings and he simply says ‘nature’. “Mountains and lakes and everything around me. I am not a landscape artist but landscape is my inspiration,” concludes the octogenarian, whose is currently enjoying the landscape of the internet.

View the exhibition here:  https://ths.li/uChJEf

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