Akara Art

PIRAJI SAGARA

Akara Modern

1931 -2014

The themes of Piraji Sagara’s artworks orbit around the semantics of the relationship between human beings and nature. His works are preoccupied with the expanse of human existence as he explores its psychological foundations. They are a true blend of the irony between the finiteness of humans, and the infiniteness of nature.

The Ahmedabad-based artist, born in a family of traditional wood carvers deftly orchestrates movement and harmony in his reliefs. He received his master’s education in arts from Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay in 1960. During the early years of Independence Piraji was known for his collages made of wood relief. Mediums like watercolour, rusted iron nails, brass sheets, pieces of carved wood used for block printing, parts of old wooden chests, brass and copper cut-outs from traditional furniture, and fragments of glass beads all find their way into his art. His works were combinations of modern abstraction and his ancestral knowledge of the materials.

Piraji’s artworks can be roughly divided into three phases. In the early phase, he used ornamental scraps. In the middle phase, he used plain sheets of metal and nails on boards in relief, and the final phase was pure relief work in wood with paint. Over the course of his developing styles, he continued to expand his artistic voice and poetic vision using anthropomorphic stylisations. Piraji Sagara’s works have been exhibited around the world, including the Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil, in 1971 and the Fukukoma Museum of Art, Tokyo, in 1979-80. He was invited to the 12th International Festival of Painters at Cagne Sur-Mer, France. He was also a past recipient of the Lalit Kala Akademi’s national award in 1963. In 2017 his solo exhibition ‘Whittled Space’ was held at Akara.

Curriculum Vitae