India
Teachers and students of NID, Ahmedabad, and others closely associated with him gathered at the institute on Thursday morning to pay tribute to the artist-designer, Dashrath Patel, who died on Wednesday.
Updated : Dec 03, 2010, 01:27 PM IST
Teachers and students of National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, and others closely associated with him gathered at the institute on Thursday morning to pay tribute to the artist-designer, Dashrath Patel, who died on Wednesday. Speakers at the condolence meeting recalled with affection Patel's honesty; his faith in 'art for the common man'; and, above all, his immense contribution to NID.
The Chennai-based writer and stage designer, Sadanand Menon, said his friendship with Patel went back 35 years. "I had visited him just two weeks back and had stayed with him for around 4 days," Menon said. "We had gone out for long drives in the evening and had ice-cream. Yes, he loved all of these."
Menon said that during the 35 years of their association, they had quarrelled over many things, shared things as friends and had done many other things together.
"Dashrath was always open, frank and honest and he believed in designing for the common man," he said. "He was planning to visit Chennai sometime around December 20 to attend the annual memorial function of our common friend Chandralekha."
Menon was the friend and collaborator of the legendary danseuse, Chandralekha, who passed away on December 30, 2006, at the age of 78. He informed the audience at NID that the memorial function for the late danseuse was to take place on December 30 but Patel had planned to reach Chennai 10 days earlier. "Dashrath wanted to roam around Chennai," Menon said, recalling Patel with affection.
Patel will be remembered not only for helping set up NID, but also for his creative work which is on display in a Mumbai museum.
"The Dashrath Patel museum and gallery in Alibaug, Mumbai, has nearly 70% of his work," Menon said. "Normally, artists are into selling their work but Dashrath was different. He tended to hold on to his work."
Patel's works that are not on display at the Mumbai museum are, thanks to his family, carefully preserved at his home in Ahmedabad, said Menon. These, too, will be taken to the Mumbai museum to be displayed there.
"There is a kind of continuity in his work - from 1948 till those produced recently," Menon said. "Dashrath was like a sponge who absorbed criticism and replied to it in a creative manner. He was a school dropout; yet he was able to articulate as few people could."
NID director Pradyumna Vyas said that Patel's death is a loss to both the institute and the nation. "Many of NID's values and culture are the result of Patel's thought and inspiration," he said. "He could think big as was evident during the Festival of India. He worked all his life to keep alive the glory if Indian design."