For instance, while others in the art fraternity were reluctant to experiment, Gujral dabbled in varied mediums—paper collage, ceramics and even burnt wood sculptures, which he took to after observing the colourful embers yielded by wood fire. “I always wanted to try new things. Many artists prefer to play safe by following a style already accepted by the market but I look for constant reinvention,” says the artist, who has even won international laurels as an architect. He built a palace for the Saudi royal family during the reign of the late King Faisal. He even designed the domed, red-brick Belgian embassy in Delhi. It won him the honour of being the only non-Belgian architect to be bestowed with the Belgian government’s Order of the Crown award. Gujral calls his tryst with architecture ‘accidental’. “A friend casually asked me if I could design buildings and I immediately thought, ‘Why not!’,” he recalls. 

Challenges failed to intimidate Gujral, even when he was a student at the JJ school of Art. He refused to accept the vocabulary promoted by the Progressive Artists Group that attracted the likes of SH Raza, FN Souza, Jehangir Sabavala and MF Husain. “I could not relate to the Western techniques adapted by the group,” he recalls. So, he gleaned Indian mythology and history to search for modernism. His inclination towards Indian history is reflected in his works on the Partition and colonialism, the most celebrated one of which is Shatranj ke Khiladi that depicted indifferent rulers enjoying themselves even as their subjects are left to misery. “I have often used art to express my experiences,” says the Padma Vibhushan recipient.  

... contd.