Art Plaza founder dies a destitute

Kamalaksha Shenoy (extreme right) with Zaffar Khan (center) and Jagdish Bhatt in front of Art Plaza





For the last 17 years — sitting at his tiny office at the far end of the footpath that leads up to Jehangir Art Gallery — Kamalaksha Shenoy helped over 2,000 upcoming, struggling artists by providing them free space in his Art Plaza to exhibit and sell their paintings.

The man who conceptualised and formatted a new genre of pavement art — a launch pad for many budding artists — unfortunately died a lonely, unsung death in an obscure old age home in Panvel on 25 November at 73.

“Since its inception, the art gallery has been exhibiting paintings of at least four artists per week absolutely free of cost. Even the proceeds from the plaza sales go directly to the artist,” said Jal Mehta, the surviving founder member, who is currently running the show.

He added that present day, well known artists like Dizzy, Navjot, Kurmi, Nagraj, Altaf and Pradeep Raut had all held their exhibitions there.

The open gallery was the courtesy of the then BMC Commissioner and art lover SS Tinaikar, who leased out the space at a nominal rent of Rs 1 per year.

Tinaikar, when contacted, said that Shenoy, then a total stranger had walked in to his office with a hand written application seeking BMC permission to start the Art Plaza.

“I gave permission to utilise the footpath outside Jehangir Art Gallery because I liked the concept of promoting new artists who could not afford to rent bigger galleries to exhibit their paintings. Over the years I found Shenoy to be a totally dedicated and selfless in his work, which did not yield him any monetary benefits. Such men are rare today,” he said modestly.

Jagdish Bhatt, an old friend and fellow artist, who was one of the last people to visit Shenoy in Shanti Ashram, Panvel, where he was lodged for the last five months said Shenoy believed that commercialisation of art killed creativity. Selling one’s painting as an outcome of necessity, but not as a first priority of the artist was Shenoy’s belief, said Bhatt.

Bhatt added that Shenoy, who was a painter himself, felt deep resentment towards the fact that an artists’ capabilities were often judged on the basis of his or her selling value.

“I encouraged him to paint again and even offered to buy him paints and a canvas, but Shenoy had lost the will to live. He was one of the few people who made a conscious decision to die penniless.

He was known to have rejected corporate sponsors, who were willing to offer huge sums of money for his projects,” said Bhatt, a retired chemical engineer, who held his first Art Plaza exhibition in 1988 and currently exhibits his work all over the country.

Ramesh Thorat, another well-known painter who held his first exhibition at Art Plaza in 1993 said, “I owe my career to Shenoy and his Art Plaza.”