Colour wood cut no.10

Shanti Dave started his career as a signboard and banner painter. He graduated from Fine Arts in MS University Baroda in 1957 where he specialised in painting. In 1975 Dave was the recipient of the Third Triennale of India award, and was selected as an eminent artist on the General Council and Executive Board of Lalit Kala Akademi. Amongst his many one-man exhibitions are included ones at the Asia Society in New York (1963), and the Hungry Horse Gallery in Sydney (1968). In his exhibition catalogue of 1979, Dave reflects: “As a painter I have held more than 25 one man shows of oils all over the world. Then something happened within me…. I felt I owed it to myself and to people at large to make inexpensive works possible for those who would like to own an original work of mine but are not able to meet the high cost of single canvas in oil. I thus turned to graphics again. I worked on a series of relief prints employing specially prepared cement moulds and paper pulp. I was not satisfied. Next, I spent two months in the graphic workshop of the artists studios at Garhi working on etchings. I realized that because of the limitations of the process, I could not get the textual effects I had in mind. So, away from the uncertainties and accidents inherent in the etching medium, I thought of woodcut which I could manipulate fully to meet my needs and which offered immense possibilities.”

Asian Art Department, AGNSW, June 2010