Dudhat Art Gallery was created to incorporate the existing philanthropic works of the founder, and to provide a permanent independent body for the expansion of various visual art activities. According to its role, Dudhat Art Gallery encourages, support and provide the opportunities for the exceptionally talented artists in the field of visual arts.
We are continuously striving towards establishing Dudhat Art Gallery, a great art centre, which shall host regular art events such as State and National exhibitions, art camps and residency programs, various scholarships and award events to encourage and support a numerous promising art enthusiasts.
The major objective of the Gallery is to identify and promote exceptionally talented artists in the field of Visual Arts, from various regions, and support them to develop their special skills and talents to the maximum by awarding, organizing various art events such as seminars, national and international art festivals and exhibitions involving scholars and educationists, State Academies or Art Organizations like faculties of visual arts in universities, art colleges and schools, art museums, art galleries and other art associations.
Dudhat Art Gallery, besides nurturing Indian visual arts by supporting the growth and creativity of visual artists, is also committed to create a larger awareness of traditional, modern and contemporary visual arts in India and across.
The Gallery also emphasizes to foster cultural contacts within the country and also with other countries, through various art events, exchange of personals, art objects, art collaborations, etc.
Around twenty years ago Bhanubhai Dudhat, a fine arts college professor in Gujarat, took his mother Santobha Dudhat to the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai.This seems similar to Indraprastha, the capital of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, she told her son. The reference to Indraprastha inspired her son to attempt a unique experiment in representing the 1.2-lakh verse epic through paintings. Though reluctant at first, his mother started painting the verses in 1989 with her son narrating from the epic.
Over a period of time her daughter-in-law Prabha and grandson Kailash helped her in the task and together they have painted 3,000 verses of the epic.The family's work is on display at the nine-day Mahabharat Utsav being held at the National College grounds from Sunday.There is still a long way to finish depicting all the verses in the epic, Mr. Dudhat says. He has brought 500 metres of the 3,000 metre-long painting to the exhibition.
He says it was more than an urge to be different that prompted him and his family to take up the task of unveiling the hidden treasures of the epic. There is no better way of representing the epic than through painting. People can understand the epic by seeing the pictures, he adds.Mr. Dhudat says his family is able to work together without the generation gap coming in the way.The family starts working in the morning with Mr. Dudhat and his son reading each verse and working on the concept.
There are differences in interpretation between my son and I, which my wife balances out with her inputs, he says. Every morning Mr. Dhudat starts on the rough outline of the painting to which his wife adds the finishing touches.On Saturdays and Sundays we all sit together to paint, he says.Their painting was first exhibited in 1991 in Udupi.
An offer was made to take their work to South Africa.However, my family declined to part with it. We prefer to give it to the Indira Gandhi Kalakendra in New Delhi, Mr. Dhudat says. Just as he passed his skills to his son, Mr. Dhudat wants his son to do the same and inspire future generations of their family.Mr. Dhudat is also working with his son on creating a 1,500-page book of pictures on Kalidasa's Meghadooth and Vikramoruasheeya.
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