Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Fine Arts | June 2017

He is easily one of the most serious and skilful young painters of our country today. He does not pose as a philosopher nor does he talk mumbo jumbo or make flabbergasting statements about his art. He feels in terms of paint and thinks in terms of paint. Shanti Dave is a man of the earth having been born and brought up amidst the unsophisticated atmosphere of a small village where one lives close to nature cultivating an emotional bond with the surroundings. Probably that is how Shanti has developed intense sensitivity towards what he finds around him. Unconsciously he enters into an emotional relationship with what constitutes his environment as received by the vision….The year 1959 was a turning point in Shanti’s career as an artist. In his experiments he began concentrating mainly on material and technique… Experiments led to a discovery. Shanti felt that by sticking things like sand pebbles he was actually using material which was in fact extraneous and foreign on painting. He came to believe that whatever one intends to do on canvas should be done with sheer paint. Thus Shanti had to look for a substitute with which to build up the form of wax medium. Pigment mixed with wax still retained its pliability and at the same time it had the technical advantage of withstanding tendencies to crack or peel off making it possible to treat the painting almost like a sculptural relief. Ratan Parimoo rpt. in Recent Paintings of Shanti Dave (Homage to the Wall) Dhoomimal Gallery ExC 1965. Indian Modern Fine Arts | 101