Shanti Dave was born in 1931 in a village of Gujrat, where he spend most of his childhood. Moving later to Ahmedabad, he earned a living by painting signboards and billboards for films. In 1950, he trained in art at the M. S. University, Baroda where he coached under eminent artist-teacher N. S. Bendre, and co-founded the Baroda Group in 1957 with fellow artists.
Dave is known as much for his paintings as he is for his large murals which adorn the walls of art institutions and public spaces all over the world. Some of his murals can be seen at the Air India offices in London, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney, and a mural at the VIP lounge of an airport in New York. Unlike most artists of his times, Dave’s works were based on modernism, which can be seen through his formal abstraction technique. He focuses on medium and its possibilities more than incorporating ideological concerns in his works. Later, he consciously preferred printmaking, attracted as much to the medium’s greater democratic nature for both the artist and the buyer, but also for the possibility of greater textures it offered.
Dave is known for his experimentation with another medium – encaustic, in combination with oil, to create paintings in high relief.
Shanti Dave received the Padma Shri in 1985 and the Sahitya Kala Parishad’s award in 1986. He has been honoured thrice by the Lalit Kala Akademi. He is very well celebrated nationally and internationally. The artist lives and works in New Delhi.
