BENGALURU: Like every year before, Suraj Sadan was there at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event exhibiting twenty of his portraits of Mahatma Gandhi at the venue. The show drew crowds of NRIs and locals impressed by Sadan’s mastery over the medium of sketching and painting. Sadan has been part of all PBDs held since the event’s inception in 2003.
His magnificent portrait of Mahatma Gandhi graced the cover of the U.N.E.S.C.O. magazine of October 1969. It appeared on stamps and endless reproductions, and thus the artist’s name became a household word around the world. With a portfolio of drawings, oils and watercolors, Suraj Sadan continues his artistic exploration in Europe and finally in Canada, which was to become his second home.
His studied art at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, as well as McGill and Concordia Universities in Montreal, where he settled with his wife, also an accomplished painter. It was an uneasy adaptation for the peripatetic artist, who to this day continues to travel between India, Paris and Montreal, unable, and unwilling, to commit his talent to one particular place.
It was nearly 50 years ago that Suraj Sadan finished the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi with Kasturba that later won him international accolades. To this day, his sketches of the Mahatma continue to impress people.
For the 78-year-old Mr. Sadan, who created the iconic portrait that went on to become the 20 paise stamp released to commemorate the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi in 1969, spreading awareness about the non-violence principles has been a mission.
Mr. Sadan’s interest in portraits of Mahatma Gandhi started as a young boy. His family, along with him, had been displaced from Quetta, now in Pakistan, and were in the post-Independence refugee centre at Kingsway Camp in Delhi when the Mahatma visited it. “I was around nine years old when he came to the camp and since then I paint his portraits,” he said, adding that he tries to create awareness of Gandhi’s principles.
He has also drawn portraits of former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and former Presidents Rajendra Prasad, S. Radhakrishnan and V.V. Giri. He loves to put the portraits of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Junior and Mahatma Gandhi together to evoke a strong image of the luminaries of non-violence. Suraj Sadan has won many international accolades and awards.
To encourage young students, Sadan’s Mahatma Gandhi International Foundation holds art contests open to 13-20 age group on the themes relating to non-violence.
India Post News Service
