The enduring power of Satish Gujral’s art

Enter the atelier at Bikaner House and a self-portrait of Satish Gujral welcomes you. The luxury store has been transformed by the Raseel Gujral Art Legacy, in collaboration with Dhoomimal Art Centre, to house never-before-exhibited paintings and sculptures.

Marking the artist’s centenary, the exhibition Gujral Within: An Introspection presents a carefully edited body of work from the last two decades of his life.

As visitors moved through the rooms, Satish Gujral’s own voice played softly in the background, setting the tone for an exhibition that felt less like a retrospective and more like an invitation to look inward and into his life, thoughts and creative world.

‘His later practice was bursting with life’ Talking about the centenary edit, in which Raseel Gujral Ansal chose to display selected artworks and sculptures from her father’s repertoire, she said, “He created a huge body of work in the last 20 years of his life, because he felt he was running out of time. He wasn’t keeping well, socialised less, and so, the world became smaller and more inward, and that showed in his work. In fact, it was bursting with life.”Surrounded by Gujral’s sculptures, Shivani Jain from Dhoomimal Art Centre, observed, “Spend some time in front of each of his artwork and each one speaks to you differently, that’s the beauty of his work.” The exhibition provided collectors and institutions with an opportunity to engage with historically significant works from Gujral’s later practice.