One of India’s leading sculptors, Himmat Shah died in Jaipur on Sunday. He was 91 years old. A fearless modern, Shah’s terracotta and the head styled in bronze created waves with their deep sensitivity in the art world. In his abstraction, his head will bring the saint of the living saint Kabir as a humble vessel. Although the market took time to respond to its greatness, Shah did not give a flag to his devotion. Perfectly immersed in his art, memories and materials, will gather in Shah’s hands to reflect the fragility and fleeting of existence. Their work performs the call of integrity, experience, culture and an inner soul. When someone sees their actions, they paint their journey through time – from the past to the present – from the tradition to modernity. Inspired by European masters such as Henry Moore, Alberto Giyamatti and Constantin Brench, Shah introduced his insight to achieve fresh land.

At a time when everyone was only looking at the rhetorical functions to define modernism, Shah used abstraction and primitiveism in sculpture because he believed that it was important for the development of modern art. He would say that fundamentally redective and non-functional modernism that we find in their sculptures was the reflection of the comprehensive attitude of cultures-Indian and foreigners.

Himmat Shah. file.

Born in a Jain business family in Lothal, Gujarat, Shah described himself as a rebel, who left his house to make his luck. Lothal, being a major site of the Indus Valley Civilization, grew up with the spirit of history and culture and urged to understand the unknown. After spending time at CN Kalaniketan at Ahmedabad and Sir JJ School of Art, he joined MS University, Baroda, where his gurus and teachers, NS Bendre, KG Subramaniam and Sankho Chaudhary provided space and time to find their idiom. In the 1960s, a Scholarship of a French government allowed him to study in the famous printmaking studio Atalier 17 in Paris. Anubhav shaped his world vision.

In 1975, Shah attended a ceramic camp in Garhi. With its calm environment, it was just the right place for Gari Shah. For the next two decades, he experimented with soil and developed a unique terminology. This slip casting technique or silver paintings have twics, they would say that their work came out of their deep experiences, without mentor or market pressure. “Solitude was my constant companion,” he once reflected in a conversation Hindu.

While the years of Garhi added a focus on their works, the market woke him up when he turned into bronze heads in the 1980s. He kept learning and growing. Not satisfied with the texture of the bronze created in Indian Founders, he asked to find ways to travel to London, to understand how to add lubrication to the strength of the bronze while creating a sculpture bones.

Face in bronze. file. , Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Despite catching age with him, Shah’s soul for experiment did not diminish because he continued to shape his experiences in his Jaipur studio until the end. He would say that the best form of expression originates from the deepest devotion.

In his death, Indian contemporary art has lost a true master of form and material, which has combined modern and spiritual as someone else.

The author is an experienced art critic.