Friendship and Creativity Went Hand-in-Hand in Artist-Poet Gieve Patel’s Life

When a deeply loved and admired artist passes away, it is the city left behind and the vast passage of friendships made and sustained in it, that offer the Best Possible Summation of a working lif in the Arts. When that artist is poet, playwright and painter gieve patel (1940-2023) and the city as capacious as Mumbai, the unusual can be expected.

A show of hands: in memoriumThe recently concluded exhibition, curved by poet and critic ranjit hoskote was help at the jehangir nicholson arts foundation Gallery (NGAF) in the (CSMVs), Mumbai. The exhibition, supported by vadehra art gallery, featured works by artists aditi Singh, anju dodiya, atul dodiya, areez katki, areez katki, arez katki, sphere Kallat, Mahesh Baliga, Nilima Sheikh, RANBIR KALEKA, RATHEESH T. and Sudhir Patwardhan and Sujith Sn – Many of Whom WHOM WHOM WHOM WHEREDS and College of Gieve. Works gieve was interested in and those who were inspired by his work.

The exhibition, supported by Vadehra Art Gallery, Featured Works by Artists, many of who are friends and colleagues of gieve | Photo Credit: Courtesy: Vadehra Art Gallery,

This might have become a sombre obcox; Intad it was a joyous, tender and unfussy act of remumbering a friend in the midst of works of art, that had some sort of connection with gieve.

Locating the exhibition in the jnaf gallery also unambigious allded to a Suready, Solid Philantropic Tradition, Which Had Had Contributed to the Making of A Rich, Varied, Spirited and Spirized, Spiritad and Thinking Arts ecosystem in Mumbai. The gallery’s core collection is from jehangir nicholson (1915-2001) One of the Early Patrons and Collectors of Modern and Contemporary Art Practices and as Much a Bombay Institution as Gieve.

Atul Dodiya’s ‘Laughter’ | Photo Credit: Courtesy: Atul Dodiya and Vadehra Art Gallery

Defying labels

As friends narrated one story after another amidst laughter and even gossip, it was clear that gieve was an artist with wide-ringing interests. He was often seen at poetry readings at the NCPA lawns or the Sassoon Library, or Silently Watching a Bharatanatyam Program Program or Reading Out His Translations of the Medieval Gujarati Poet AKHO, whom, whose Six Stanza Form of chappas He had worked on for decades.

Attempting to draw a simplistic correlation with the man and his artistic selves or trying to slot Him definitionively in a particular movement in the arts is simply unworkable. He had the ability to be precise, specific but also in service to certain Principles that he could not be disasuaded from such as the enduring value of the enduring value of the Classical Arts, Not A POPALAR POPALAR POPAN THE TAKE Today. Here he is spending to his friend Sudhir Patwardhan in Art India (Volume 5, 2000)

Gulmohammed Sheikh’s ‘Dreaming with Gieve’ | Photo Credit: Courtesy: Gulmohammed Sheikh and Vadehra Art Gallery

“I am indeed a success for permanent values in art, and for the landmarks of the past. Significant and what is not. but also a sense of being continuously nurtured by the work and the presence of other artists on the scene. Lot – Through our work, exchange ideas, and yes of course through very lively gossip! Ways. “

As friend and Senior Artist Nilima Sheikh Pointed Out, Gieve’s Acuity of observation was quite remarkable. “As artists when we spendak to each other we expect to be undersrstood. Through the superfluous ”, she says.

Memories of Marine Drive

Pointing to the unusual laughter on the day of the opening, Sudhir Patwardhan Simply Says Any Meeting With Gieve Always Broughs of Brought Lips of Laughter. Sudhir, Who Moved to Mumbai Straight out of Medical College in Pune, to be in a city where exhibitions and meetings with Fellow artists were likely to be more frequent, met gieve

Sudhir Patwardhan’s ‘Marine Drive’ | Photo Credit: Courtesy: Sudhir Patwardhan & Vadehra Art Gallery

His painting as a tribute to his friend is titled ‘Marine Drive’ and Shows Two Friends Sitting by the Sea Late and Having a free-waiting chat. Sudhir Says they would meet at marine drive for some quiet time after gieve closes Station.

Atul dodiya chose to share his series of paintings on the ‘nayanars’ made for the scholar david shulman, who he met through gieve. But it was the painting titled ‘Laughter’, which used one half of a human skull and another of gieve’s logging face that opens up many stories. Dodiya points to gieve’s well-known fascination with death and the decaying of the human body. “He is probally the only painter who has painted ‘death’ in so many ways,” Says dodiya.

A work from gieve’s ink sketches from dead politicalians series. , Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Among Gieve’s Works at the exhibition was his ink sketches of the ‘dead politicalians series’. “You might say that as a doctor he was drawn to the idea of death, but I think it was more of a very insurance philosophical questioning and seeking that Drove Him,” He Says. This was also evident in his framed series of paintings on ‘wells’ in which the self and reflection are examined.

As a young student at jj school of art, dodiya says, He Had Taken to Dropping Into His Clinic in the events. A Decade Later Later, When He Approached the Senior Artist to Write a Note for his first solo exhibition at Chemld, He Agreed Setting Off Anothar Cycle of Artistic Friendships and Possibleies in the Cituities.

Published – June 25, 2025 01:50 pm IST