Book: ALMELKAR: THE RESURRECTION — LETTERS & LINES OF A MASTER

Edited by: Archana Khare-Ghose

Published by: Gallery Silver Scapes

Price: Rs 12,000

ALMELKAR: THE RESURRECTION — LETTERS & LINES OF A MASTER aims to resurrect a painter who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with giants like S.H. Raza, K.K. Hebbar and K.H. Ara and, yet, remained less celebrated. Abdulrahim Appabhai Almelkar built a fiercely individual style rooted in Indian folk idioms, miniature traditions, and the lives of ordinary people — fishermen, villagers and Adivasi communities. Edited by Archana Khare-Ghose, the book’s greatest strength is its refusal to turn into blind worship. The essay on decoloniality reads Almelkar with both affection and rigour, especially in discussing how he moved away from Western academic realism to reclaim an indigenous visual language. The final section — his Gujarati letters to his guru, Hiralal Khatri, with English translations — is intimate and revealing. This book restores Almelkar to where he belongs: not on the margins, but at the centre of modern Indian art.