Time used to be his medium and he’ll eternally be everlasting.
The India Artwork Truthful used those phrases to eulogise their “expensive pal” and mythical artist Hanif Kureshi, co-founder of St+artwork India.
As I sat to pen this piece, I determined to scour the web for op-eds, memoirs, social media condolences — the rest that will give me an inkling of the legend whose loss India is mourning; Kureshi passed on to the great beyond on Sunday on the age of 41 following a combat with most cancers.
Hours later, I finished my seek with a shiny thought of the maestro forming in my thoughts’s eye. Phrases can not do justice to it; so, let me paint an image, as he would have stated.
Believe artwork this is sensible, colourful, vibrant, extravagant, alluring, and wonderful — each usual adjective that one would go together with picturesque artwork. Additionally consider activism, forward-thinking, introspection, visionary scripts, hard-hitting messages, and thought-provoking concepts.
Now image a person expertly manoeuvring himself at the tightrope between the 2. This used to be Hanif Kureshi. His artwork, unabashedly daring and layered, gave shape to feelings. It puzzled conventional exclusivity.
Because the India Artwork Truthful put this into standpoint, “His paintings wasn’t almost about portray work of art — it used to be about making a bridge between artwork and on a regular basis lifestyles. His affect will live to tell the tale in each aha second his paintings sparked.”
Whilst a lot of the legend’s frame of labor is well known below his identify Hanif, when you must ever stumble throughout an excellent portray by means of ‘Daku’ or ‘Guerrilla’, know that it reveals its roots in the similar brush. Over time, Gujarat-born Hanif and his pseudonyms created a motion out of side road artwork; one who displays no indicators of slowing down.
The affection affair of Hanif Kureshi and his brush
Surprise waves unfold throughout the artwork group on Sunday when St+artwork India Basis’s Instagram web page introduced the dying in their loved co-founder:
“It’s with deep disappointment that we percentage the passing of Hanif Kureshi, our loved co-founder, creative director and artist. We’re gutted and at a lack of phrases. Hanif used to be a talented mentor, collaborator, pal, father, and husband. His imaginative and prescient and aura contributed to shaping the panorama of public artwork in India with the numerous initiatives he has contributed to. He used to be devoted to nurturing a group of artists, designers, and creatives who relied on him with unswerving steering. He used to be a pioneering determine for graffiti and side road artwork along with his tags unfold throughout towns he travelled to. It’s been an honour for the St+Artwork, XXL, and Guerrilla groups to have recognized and labored with Hanif during the last 10 years. He lives on with the profound legacy he leaves in the back of. This is a void that can’t be crammed and we will be able to pass over him dearly. We mourn his passing and pray he rests in peace,” the submit learn.
At indicators in Bengaluru, alongside highways in Mumbai, in old fashioned corners of Panjim, in bustling metropolitan suburbs, in antiquated streets of Lodhi the place thick layers of mud had lined any possible for good looks, Kureshi wielded his brush. And with each and every stroke, a masterpiece used to be born.
The previous advert skilled and multidisciplinary artist contested the perception that the only function of side road artwork is to sit down nonetheless and glance beautiful. He advised as an alternative that it’s the harbinger of social trade, carry communities in combination, and lift consciousness. His artwork have been a medley of thought-provoking concepts.
The place fresh artwork glorified English and Western scripts, Kureshi breathed lifestyles into vernacular dialects, sparing them from disappearing into oblivion. His Handpainted Kind venture, impressed by means of side road indicators discovered at the store forums of distributors and paan dealers, used to be a step against maintaining the typographic follow of side road painters via digitisation. This, in flip, created an alternative for those signal painters, whose time-tested abilities have been being substituted for fast moving millennial tendencies.
“Typefaces are like other people,” he as soon as stated. “You knew them by means of the garments they wore. It’s worthwhile to take Helvetica to a celebration and it could have compatibility it [in], whilst the only font, pink field of The Economist is so distinct.”
Over time, Kureshi’s paintings transcended the alleyways of Indian towns and moved throughout horizons. The colors of his legacy spilt onto the London Design Biennale, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris, Triennale Design Museum, Milan, and Sikka Artwork Truthful Dubai. His paintings used to be acclaimed by means of innovative artists for its depiction of lifestyles in its truest shape.
St+artwork India Basis: Making artwork out there
A deep want to take artwork out of conventional galleries and make it out there, part of the town’s DNA if you’ll, colored each and every of Kureshi’s alternatives. He co-founded St+artwork Basis in 2013 modelled in this trust. The not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Delhi noticed Kureshi, Arjun Bahl, Akshat Nauriyal, Giulia Ambrogi and Thanish Thomas select up their brushes to color the city, actually and metaphorically.
“He [Kureshi] sought after to make artwork in point of fact democratic for all. He used to be very Indian streets, he discovered them very vibrant,” Bahl shared Kureshi’s reasoning.
Lately, work of art throughout 4 artwork districts in India — Lodhi Artwork District, Ukkadam Artwork District in Coimbatore, Mahim Artwork District in Mumbai, and Nochi Artwork District in Chennai — display their appreciation for St+artwork.
That’s now not all. Over time, India has benefitted from the basis’s repertoire of gala’s and public artwork initiatives throughout Delhi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai — the 2 maximum notable ones being the Mumbai City Artwork Pageant in 2022 and the Lodhi Pageant in 2023.
A stroll via Mumbai’s Sassoon Docks — India’s primary fish export centre courting again to 1875 — is an journey for the senses. Smells and attractions compete on your consideration. In line with the theme ‘Between the Sea and the Town’, the artwork used to be intended to painting the town’s shut ties with water.
In the meantime, the Lodhi Artwork District explored the synergy between artwork for the sake of artwork, and artwork that triggers conversations in public areas. In the future, stroll via this cultural hub in Delhi the place the handiwork of over 50 nationwide and world artists converges. Your walk will deal with you to work of art whose soul-searching comes wrapped in colourful sunglasses. They are going to beckon you to assume past artwork.
Whether or not it’s a mural showcasing antique Indian matchboxes embedded with cryptic messages (that endure semblance to Indian public provider bulletins); work of art that become into 3-d; artwork that spotlight the perils of a social-media-obsessed era, or those who reference the day-to-day lifestyles in Lodhi — carpets drying at the terrace, youngsters learning, and candies being bought in lots; the artwork has a lifetime of its personal.
And this emotion extends to the entirety Kureshi’s thoughts has touched.
A stroll down the lane of Hanif Kureshi’s paintings
“Poignant” is how admirers of ‘Daku’s’ ‘Cycle of Time’ set up describe it to be. It has a profound affect at the viewer. Displayed on the India Artwork Structure Design Biennale (IAADB) on the Crimson Fortress in Delhi in 2023, the set up includes a cover of phrases ‘PAST IS PRESENT IS FUTURE IS PAST’ in a trance-inducing collection. The shadows they forged shift in tandem with the motion of the Solar, underscoring the elusive nature of time.
Kureshi’s paintings mixed bursts of color with a cheeky tackle societal problems. That is obvious in one among his works tracing again to 2014, particularly to the weeks main as much as the overall election. 4 huge monochrome paste-ups of a center finger marked with an indelible ink blot, and captioned with the Hindi word ‘Mat Do (Vote)’ have been positioned throughout New Delhi. The graffiti used to be cheeky, compelling individuals who took it at face price to ‘pass vote’, however compelling those that learn between the traces to ‘now not vote’.
Kureshi’s legacy is immortalised within the sands of time. His buddies and admirers noticed him as any individual who used to be observant and perceptive, qualities that translated into his artwork. Artwork curator Rahul Bhattacharya hailed him as a job type to many, announcing, “He performed a particularly vital position in popularising side road artwork in India and used to be a job type to many. Proper from the start, he used to be now not a traditional artist. He used to be continuously exploring new avenues.”
And to this finish, Kureshi’s legacy lives on, now not simply in his frame of labor, however within the bonds he fostered amongst artists and the enjoyment of other people residing in the street whose view used to be Kureshi’s larger-than-life canvases.
Edited by means of Pranita Bhat; Photos supply: St+artwork India.
Resources:
Remembering Hanif Kureshi, the artist who breathed lifestyles into Mumbai’s streets by means of Sadaf Shaikh, Revealed on 25 September 2024.
A One-Guy Revolution: The Creative Legacy Of The Overdue Hanif Kureshi by means of Drishya, Revealed on 24 September 2024.
Portray at the wall: Boulevard artist Hanif Kureshi remembered for making artwork democratic by means of The Hindu, Revealed on 24 September 2024.
Hanif Kureshi’s artwork created a bridge between the road and the folk by means of Indian Categorical, Revealed on 24 September 2024.
A Guided Strolling Excursion of Lodhi Artwork District with St+Artwork India by means of Ankita Bhatia, Revealed on 2 November 2019.