Page 212 - Iconic Master

Lot No. 120

SHANTI DAVE

b. 1931
UNTITLED
69 x 45.5 in (175.3 x 115.6 cm)
Oil & encaustic on canvas
1971
Signed & Dated: Centre Right
` 20,00,000 - 30,00,000 | $ 25,000 - 37,500
Provenance: Property from a collection based
in New Delhi

Born in 1931, Shanti Dave grew up in the
village of Badpura in northern Gujarat, living
with his mother and brother. He began
his career in fine arts as a signboard and
banner painter in Ahmedabad. In 1950,
Dave enrolled at the Faculty of Fine Arts at
MS University in Baroda, where he studied
under the renowned artist and teacher
N S Bendre, completing both his graduation
(1950-56) and post-diploma in Fine Art.
Dave is celebrated for his paintings and
large-scale murals, such as those that
once adorned Air India’s offices in London,
New York, and Frankfurt. His work reflects
modernist concerns, particularly in its formal
abstraction, with a strong emphasis on the
medium and its possibilities rather than on
ideological narratives.
In his later years, Dave gravitated towards
printmaking, attracted by the medium’s
democratic nature, both for the artist and the
buyer, as well as the rich textural possibilities
it offered.
A co-founder of the Baroda Group in 1956,
along with fellow artists, Dave won the
national award of the Lalit Kala Akademi for
three consecutive years, in 1956, 1957, and
1958. He was honoured with the Government
of India’s Padma Shri in 1985 and received
the Sahitya Kala Parishad award in 1986. The
artist currently resides in New Delhi.