Teacher and treasure …..Rajeev Lochan
Dashrath Patel was a truly indigenous, multi-dimensional talent
Dashrath Patel was a truly indigenous, multi-dimensional talent
MULTI-FACETED individual, Dashrath Patel was an accomplished painter, designer, sculptor, potter, installation artist, industrial designer, photographer, Indias first multi-media artist, a thinker, philosopher, teacher and inspiration to a generation.
His unique strength and individuality lay in the creation of works and designs imbued with an Indian sensibility. With the motto design should always be need based, not greed based, he encompassed multiple styles and found stimulation in seemingly ordinary influences, transgressing the boundaries of various disciplines by drawing interrelations between them.
Constantly searching for the means to express his creativity, from an early age Patel found more joy in dabbling with paintings, drawings and making collages, than with his studies, which he left in school itself. Even without much formal academic training in the arts, Patel was able to draw immense inspiration from an array of international and local sources and teachers.
An early association with Harindranath Chattopadhyaya and Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury inspired Patel to transit from one medium to another. He later collaborated with a variety of outstanding personalities in the field of art and design: photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, architect Louis Kahn, industrial designers Charles Eames and Frei Otto and engraver Stanley William Hayter.In all his works,Patel revealed an intense preoccupation with the visual form.The main concern was always the interconnectivity of the diverse modes of expressing the visual.The significance of his works lies in the unending quest for new potential in diverse media, vis-a-vis the perfection of a particular formula.
Dashrath Patel is best known as the first Indian teacher of design and design practice. One of the founding members of theNational Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, which he joined in 1961,Patel was instrumental in introducing professional design practice in arange of products.He established various new departments in the institute: photography, graphics, ceramics and exhibition design. He also trained the first batch of teachers of design. Simultaneously, during his 19-year period at the institute, he was also the chief designer, conceptualiser and project coordinator of all official exhibitions of India abroad. His idea of design was strongly linked with a sense of indigenous self-sufficiency, upholding a national consciousness.
In June this year, in an interview with a leading Gujarati daily, Patel defined his vision of the design process: the emphasis is on public need, public economic status, increased and effective deliverance, reasonable price, infrastructural sustenance, adoptive production methods, etc. The design and production of products that follow this design process helps the growth and development of the country and its people. In 1981, Dashrath Patel became involved in the Gandhian rural development unit at Sewapuri, near Va ranasi. Dashraths inputs for improving and dramatically changing not just production but also the design and distribution end were seen as having great potential to revitalise the Gandhian production units.
The Rural Design School was also set up at Sewapuri. Dashrath Patels entire work at Sewapuri was based on the ideal of swadeshi to produce for need, pursuing the val
ues of sustainable self-sufficiency, and restoring dignity to rural products.