  About the Artwork
  
  
  In this painting, Atul Dodiya combines photorealist and abstract styles to bring together two leaders of India’s Independence movement (1857 – 1947): Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.

Meticulously reproducing an archival black-and-white image by photographer Kanu Gandhi, Dodiya uses subdued tones to depict Gandhi emerging from a Packard sedan at the home of Muhammad Ali Jinnah for negotiations in September 1944. Jinnah, who would later become the first governor-general of Pakistan, led the All-India Muslim League political party, which advocated for the creation of a separate, Muslim-majority nation upon India’s Independence from Britain. Gandhi represented the Indian National Congress, which advocated for a unified India post-Independence. Their negotiations ultimately failed, and exaggerated shadows suggest a tense mood.

Across the top of the painting, Dodiya layered an abstract gold line and perched bird quoted from drawings by artist and poet Rabindranath Tagore. Many believe that Tagore — also a prominent advocate for Indian independence — was the first to call Gandhi “Mahatma,” Sanskrit for “great soul.” Dodiya calls this painting an “homage to two great souls India produced in the first half of the twentieth century.”
  
  
  Title
  Mahatma Gandhi getting out of a car, Bombay, 1944
  
  
  Artwork Date
  2016
  
  Artist
  Atul Dodiya
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  born 1959
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Indian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 72 × 72 inches (182.9 × 182.9 cm)
  Unframed: 71 7/8 × 72 1/16 × 1 9/16 inches (182.5 × 183 × 4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  Contemporary Art after 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Modern and Contemporary Deaccession Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2019.43
  
  
  Copyright
  © ATUL DODIYA
