Sabarmati Ashram to host expo on Mahatma’s legacy

Sabarmati Ashram - Mahatma Gandhi’s abode for over a decade and the starting point for the historic Dandi March on March 12, 1930 - will host a traditional painting exhibition here on his life and legacy in 12 different artforms next week.

Titled ‘Relive the Ideals of the Mahatma through Art', the group exhibition provides a retrospect on some historical events and highlights important lessons from Mahatma Gandhi's life.The 25 exclusive paintings were developed for the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank). They were showcased in Delhi and Pune prior to this.

As per a statement from Exim Bank, the participating artists represent 12 traditional art forms: Warli painting, Gond painting, North East weaving, Pattachitra painting, Papier Mache art, Tanjore painting, Sanjhi craft, Pattua painting, Kalamkari painting, Mata-Ni-Pachedi, Phad painting and Madhubani painting.

The exhibition will not only provide an opportunity to the residents of Ahmedabad for a rendezvous with the milestone events from the Mahatma's life but will also share lessons from his life with Indian and foreign tourists who visit the Sabarmati Ashram, the bank said.

The three monkeys, which is a pictorial maxim of ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil', is a popular theme and is manifested in several paintings by Gond artists."Sanjhi artists who have lived in oblivion for far too long will also have their intrinsic scissor-work art displayed at the exhibition," the organisers said.

On the genesis of the paintings, Exim Bank's MD David Rasquinha said: "We shared the concept about the project and left it to the artists to develop the paintings according to their own interpretation of important events from Mahatma Gandhi's life. The artists worked on them for over two months."

The exhibition will help provide a bigger platform to traditional Indian art forms, he said.Opening on the eve of the 89th anniversary of Dandi March's first step, the show will be free for the public. It will run from March 11-15.