ArtsBespoke
Photograph of Prafulla Dahanukar

The Artists of the House · 18

Prafulla Dahanukar

1934 to 2014 · Goa

Abstract landscapes of single vivid colours in many shades, titled Eternal Space.

Photograph: Prafulla Dahanukar, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Born
1934
Died
2014
Birthplace
Goa
Medium
Oil painting, Murals in ceramic, wood and glass

Prafulla Dahanukar (1934 to 2014) was born in Goa, raised in Mumbai, and graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1955 with a gold medal. A French government scholarship took her to the École des Beaux-Arts and Atelier 17 in Paris, where she held an exhibition in 1961.

Close to the Bombay Progressive Artists' circle, she is known for luminous, meditative abstractions in which lines, colour and volume settle into wide horizontal expanses, and for ceramic, wood and glass murals in buildings across Mumbai. She died in Mumbai on 1 March 2014.

A life, dated

AB / TIMELINE

  1. 1934

    Born in Bandora, Goa.

  2. 1955

    Graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art with a Gold Medal.

  3. 1956

    Began holding solo exhibitions.

  4. 1961

    Received a French government scholarship to study fine art in Paris.

  5. 1974

    Joined the Lalit Kala Akademi committee, serving until 1979.

  6. 1978

    Held the first of three London solo shows, sponsored by the High Commission of India.

  7. 1993

    Became President of the Bombay Art Society, serving until 1998.

  8. 2014

    Died in Mumbai on 1 March, aged 80.

Held in public collections

AB / COLLECTIONS

  • National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
  • Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
  • Nagpur Central Museum
  • Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai

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Works from the house

AB / WORKS

M. F. Husain, Women dancing before a yellow moon: a framed print of five women with raised arms dancing before a great yellow moon over water, with a boat, two small elephants and a tree hung with cloths.

Figures & portraits

Women dancing before a yellow moon

M. F. Husain. Five women, drawn in loose, flowing black line and washes of grey, dance with raised arms before a great yellow moon on a dark ground.

A square Kalamkari style painting: an ivory white face with a vaishnava tilak and a flat orange disc at the mouth, with Shri Hanuman Ji figures with folded hands climbing the right edge beside a gold mandala.

Devotional & narrative

Hanuman and the rising sun

Ramesh Gorjala. An ivory face, almost bare, takes the centre; a flat orange disc is held at its mouth and reads at once as the sun.

Kiran, A flame in the blue hour: a square abstract in deep ultramarine over a black ground, with a glowing white-and-gold flame form at the lower left and a small red-orange panel at the lower right.

Abstract

A flame in the blue hour

Kiran. A square canvas held in deep ultramarine over a heavy black ground.

Prasad KVS, The flute and the parrot: a landscape-format painting in red, blue and yellow of a blue flute-player in angular, cubist form, with a green parrot perched on a red shoulder.

Devotional & narrative

The flute and the parrot

Prasad KVS. A blue figure, built from sharp-edged planes of ultramarine, scarlet and deep navy, plays a long bamboo flute while a green parrot perches on a red drape at the upper lef.

All works Abstract Figures Devotional Landscape Ravi Varma Press stones