What would Mahatma Gandhi have done in a world like ours is a question that has been asked repeatedly over the years, and Indian artist Gurmeet Marwah has just reiterated the answer.
Marwah's 2018 painting, "Love Manager" that shows Gandhi quietly sewing colourful hearts on a piece of cloth, as battle tanks have a go at each other in the backdrop, captures Gandhi's idea of defeating hatred with love, and violence with non-violence.
The artwork is part of a new exhibition, 'Bapu: Through the eyes of artists' that opened at the Lalit Kala Akademi here on Wednesday, to commemorate 150 years of Gandhi's birth anniversary.
The show curated by art critic Uma Nair features artworks in a wide range of media -- paintings, prints, ceramic works, archival photographs and sculptures by 120 Indian artists, both emerging and renowned.
It was inaugurated by Lt Governor Anil Baijal.
Featuring several portraits of Gandhi, and all the iconic symbols associated with him -- his charkha, spectacles, staff, padukas, his pocket watch and also the three monkeys, the exhibition is everything that represents Gandhi.
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"Bapu's vision for a higher moral purpose of art brings artists together. He believed that art could be utilised to build the nation's moral character.
"This show is about giving voice to everyone. We have artists from emerging as well as established names in the art world. The beauty of creation is that all of us have a small Gandhi within us. It must come alive and serve humanity at all times," Nair said.
Besides Marwah, the painting segment also features works by renowned artists like Arpana Caur, Jagannath Panda, Satish Gupta, and Paresh Maity, whose 13.5 ft tall work shows Gandhi spinning the wheel.
The portrait of a saddened Gandhi flanked by innumerable identical arguing politicians in Rajendra Kapse's "Faces of Politics" immediately captures attention, perhaps for its possibilities of contemporary interpretations.
The sculpture section is led by four works of legendary artist Ram V Sutar.
Sutar's larger than life sculpture of Gandhi, with two children bears an inscription at the bottom -- "Mera jeevan hi mera sandesh hai" (My life is my message).
"This work is rooted in classicism but reaches towards the natural, dynamic styles of later contemporaries. It is simultaneously realistic and romantic in the manner of gesture and poise.
"The statue with the simply clad children perfectly articulates Gandhi's determined idealism," she said.
Among other participating sculptors are Bhaktibhushan De, Nimesh Pilla, Madhab Das, Ankon Mitra and many others.
To "give history to the exhibition", Nair has also included 10 photographs from Gandhi's lifetime and after, specially given by the Photo Division of India.
These include familiar images of a young barrister Gandhi, his pictures with Subhash Chandra Bose and other political leaders of the time.
There is also a rare image clicked by Ram Rahman in 1995 of artist Bhupen Khakhar sitting in the lap of the huge statue of Gandhi at the Gandhi Museum in Delhi, and a 2010 photograph by contemporary artist Gigi Scaria titled, "Who Deviated first?".
The photograph, a digital print on archival paper, takes a re-look at Devi Prasad Chaudhry's "Gyarah Murti".
Works by 30 students from Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai are also part of the exhibition.
Baijal took the opportunity to highlight the need for public art, and added that he has been identifying several spots across Delhi to display public art.
"We get so busy in the humdrum of our lives that we forget to notice things around us. Public art helps provide the connection between brick and mortar, and human emotions. That is why we are trying that at least in Delhi we can have art in public spaces.
"If nothing else, we can at least try to bring copies of artworks that are usually locked up in galleries or artist studios to the public. We are identifying public spaces to display art and soon we will be able to show real art created by real geniuses in the city," he said.
'Bapu: Through the eyes of artists' is set to continue till October 22.
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