Visitors at the exhibition. Picture by Eastern Projections

Days after serial blasts ripped Guwahati apart, artist Neelmoni Talukdar’s exhibition at the Lalit Kala Bhavan gallery of Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra showcased the world’s most eminent propagator of peace, Mahatma Gandhi, in 44 of his paintings.

The show, titled Shantir Sandhaan (in search of peace), highlights moments of Gandhi’s life in oil and in the form of portraits.

Three paintings deserve special mention.

In the first one, the Mahatma is walking on a narrow bamboo bridge at Noakhali, following the outbreak of communal violence in 1947. The overcast sky and gloomy facial expressions lend depth and pathos to the work. The second projects a profile of Gandhi on the seashore. The concern and anxiety are as widespread as the sea. In the third one, Gandhi is leading a protest march by coalmine workers in Bihar.

Three other paintings present Gandhi’s bonding with children. In one painting, little Indira Nehru is sitting beside Gandhi on the 21st day of his fast-unto-death programme in Delhi in 1924.

Gandhi sports a beatific, almost divine smile.

In the second one, Gandhi’s ecstatic face is placed beside that of a child.

The third shows Gandhi and Kasturba walking by the seashore, with a child leading Gandhi by the hand.

Other canvases show Gandhi posing with four others after becoming a barrister in South Africa, at the Round Table Conference in London in 1931 and Gandhi being beaten up by South African police.

In paintings of Gandhi with Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his wife Kasturba, Talukdar has intelligently maintained the nuances, keeping in mind the differences in the personalities of the four.