Description

Haku Vajubhai Shah (1934 - 2019) was an Indian painter, Gandhian, cultural anthropologist and an author on folk and tribal art. He graduated in Fine Arts (BFA) followed by a master's degree in Fine Arts(MFA) from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

From the 1960s, Haku Shah had been on a constant quest of how to practice as an artist on the one hand and how to engage with the conservation and preservation of the arts and crafts of unknown or lesser-known pockets of India, especially Gujarat. In 1968, he curated the 'Ritual Art in Tribe and Village: Art of Unknown India' exhibition, organized by Art Critic Stella Kramrisch at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He received the Rockefeller Grant in the same year and in 1971, the Nehru Fellowship Award. Over the years, he carried out extensive field research and documentation on rural and tribal arts and crafts, traditions and folk lore.

Cultural roots of the family and the prevailing social, spiritual environment around were sources of major influences on Shah’s life and art.