From the fringes to the frame

Prafulla Dahanukar's work has been exhibited around the world, but her impact on Modern art in India remains largely forgotten. An upcoming retrospective seeks to change that

- Dhamini Ratnam

Gauri and Gopika, Prafulla Dahanukar's daughters, vividly remember a retrospective of her work, held at the Jehangir Art Gallery, in 2014. Organised by their now deceased father, the industrialist Dilip Dahanukar, three months after her death, it offered an expansive overview of her work across six decades.

A few things stood out for the daughter at the time. "So many artists came up to us and told us that their supporter has gone," says Gopika Dahanukar, 51, an expressive-arts educationist.

"I heard so many times that day, 'Your mom is my best friend'," adds Gauri Mehta, 56, a cultural philanthropist in the US.

Dahanukar (right) showed her art around the world in her lifetime. A prolific painter and muralist, she was also president of the Art Society of India, and of the Bombay Art Society. She was on the boards of the Lalit Kala Akademi, Kala Academy Goa, and Jehangir Art Gallery.

She worked to promote up-and-coming artists from non-metropolitan centres. She had a remarkable ability to pull in funds from high-net-worth individuals.

Yet, in the pantheon of Modern Indian art, Dahanukar's name remains obscured.

A retrospective set to open on December 11 in Mumbai where the artist grew up and spent most of her life-seeks to rectify this.