Poetry Patel's poetical works include
Poems, launched by
Nissim Ezekiel, followed by
How Do You Withstand, Body and Mirrored Mirroring. One common theme throughout his work is the relationship between his landowning family and the tribal
Warlis that worked in their estate. Patel conducted poetry workshops in
Rishi Valley School for more than a decade, and edited a collection of poetry published in 2006. His poetry is included in
Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry (BigBridge, United States). One of his Poems
Licence from the collection
How do you Withstand is included in the anthology
Confronting Love edited by Arundhati Subramanyam and
Jerry Pinto. He was also featured in the poetry anthology
The Golden Treasure of Writers Workshop Poetry on a killing tree (2008) ed. by Rubana Huq and published by
Writers Workshop,
Calcutta. Additionally, he translated poems of the 17th century
Gujarati poet
Akho into English.
Published works •
University. •
Poems.
Nissim Ezekiel, 1966. •
How Do You Withstand, Body. Clearing House, (1976 ). •
Mirrored, Mirroring.
Oxford University Press, 1991. •
On Killing a Tree. Art Paintings Patel’s paintings received public attention when he painted the
Politician series in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After the
Politician serie
s, Patel's well-known artworks are his
Railway Platform series. These paintings originated from his experiences of sitting on a bench in a suburban railway station and watching the trains arrive and depart. One interesting aspect about these paintings is that Patel does not paint a single person on the platform i.e., the platforms are completely devoid of people. This is the moment when one train arrives, the crowd leaves and the passengers of another train are yet to arrive. Even though the platforms are always crowded, one feels the painter's longing to find solitude in the chaos of the city through the serene images in his paintings. A similar atmosphere of mystery and peace can be seen in other city-based images painted by Patel in the later period.
Two men near a handcart,
Vegetable seller,
Bus stop, The Letter Home are some of his notable works. In these paintings one can see how the painter works on two different aspects at the same time. On one hand, the idea is to create engaging experiences through pictures, colours and shapes. Whereas, on the other hand, there are struggles of people in their daily lives and its relationship with the artist. Given his closeness to life and the increasing violence in society, Patel's paintings in the 1980s and 1990s often featured wounded people and images of the dead. They take a critical look at some of the terrible aspects of human nature and society as a whole with a fearless and neutral perspective. For his last twenty years or so, the subject that kept Patel preoccupied was the view of looking into a well. The wells in Patel's native village Nargol and its vicinity are not that deep. Most of the time, one can bend down and touch the water in the well. One can see the sky and clouds reflected in the water along with the surrounding mountains, trees and bushes. Patel painted a series based on these views of the well, titled
Looking into a Well. While these are considered to be paintings of nature, the act of looking at nature appeared to Patel like peering into his own mind. Thereby, he continued to paint in this quest of self-exploration. Patel held his first art show at Mumbai's
Jehangir Art Gallery in 1966, and went on to have several major exhibitions in India and abroad. He participated in the Menton Biennale, France in 1976;
India, Myth and Reality, Oxford in 1982;
Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy,
London 1982. He also exhibited for Contemporary Indian Art, Grey Art Gallery,
New York City, 1985;
Indian Art from the Herwitz collection
Worcester Art Museum,
Massachusetts, 1985 and
Coups de Coeur Geneva, 1987.
Sculptures Patel held the first exhibition of his sculptures in 2010. His sculptures are broadly based on two themes. The story of
Ekalavya in the
Mahabharata is one of the subjects, where the narrative is centred on Eklavya's hand and broken thumb. Another theme is that of
Daphne in
Greek mythology, where the beautiful Daphne transforms into a tree to escape the lust of the god
Apollo. In these sculptures, Patel depicts the semi-transformed state of Daphne's body. == See also ==