An Unreasoned Act of Being
Publisher: Ashgate; Mapin Publishing; Lund Humphries
Published: September 30, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 119
ISBN-13: 9780853319771
Subjects: Individual artists; Sculpture & other three-dimensional art forms; 20th century; Art; Art & Art Instruction; India; General; Individual Artist; Sculpture
Description: "An Unreasoned Act of Being looks at the career of the draughtsman and sculptor Himmat Shah. Born in Lothal in 1933 to a Jain mercantile family, Shah was a rebellious child who refused to attend traditional school. He found his vocation at art school and trained under a teacher of Gandhian persuasion. As a founder member of Group 1890, Shah championed contemporary Indian art as distinct from the influential Paris and New York schools. Nonetheless, he spent two years in Paris, imbibing Western modernism and being exposed to the work of Klee, Brancusi, Picasso and Giacometti." "Shah's style is instantly recognizable in the totemic and iconic heads that are rather phallic in shape. They are contemplative and embody masculinity rather than portraiture. By applying techniques used in printmaking, Shah marks the surfaces with grooves and etching, whether the sculpture be in terracotta or bronze. Gayatri Sinha has succeeded in bringing to life a significant sculptor of twentieth-century Indian art."--Jacket.