Born at Juni Jithardi, Gujarat in 1937, Nagji Patel completed his MA (Fine Arts) in Sculpture at the M.S. University of Baroda. He is widely known for reviving the traditional technique of stone carving in India and combining it with ornamental detail. He has participated in a number of exhibitions like the National Exhibition, New Delhi (1961), XII Biennial, Antwerp, Belgium (1975); Contemporary Asian Art Festival, Japan (1979 & 90); International Festival of Art, Baghdad (1986) and the Festival of India, Tokyo, Japan (1988). He was appointed the Commissioner, IVth Triennale, New Delhi in 1978. He was also a member on the Judging Committee of the National Exhibition in 1993. His work is a part of many reputed collections such as the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi, Bangalore and Ahmedabad; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Museum of Fine Arts, Chandigarh as well as a number of private collections in India and abroad. Some of Patel’s most acknowledged sculptures are on display at Corporate Office, IPCL, Vadodara; Olympic Sculpture Park, Seoul, Korea and Sculpture Park, Aji-Mure Town, Japan. He currently lives in Baroda.

WORK

Bird
by Nagji Patel
Marble
1982

Bird
by Nagji Patel
Sandstone
1964

Panchmarhi
by Nagji Patel
Drawing on Paper
2004

ESSAYS

Timeless Motifs: A Study in Natural Grandeur

by Gulammohammed Sheikh

Catalogue text published by Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, 1991.

The massive sculpture (20’ x 16’ x 5’) Nagji Patel has carved for the circular traffic island of Fatehgunj crossing at Baroda is arguably the largest modern Indian sculpture in stone. Designed as a pair of banyan trees

Abacus: A monumental sculpture

by Gulammohammed Sheikh

Published in a catalogue by Transpek-Silox Industry Ltd, 2004

The installation of the sculptural monument Abacus at the Akshar Chowk on the crossroads of the Old Padra Road with the Altadara Road marks the gift of yet another gateway or torana designed by sculptor Nagji Patel for

Ploughing The Field

by Nilima Sheikh

The modernism of the sixties in India has remained sculptor Nagji Patel’s mooring, a preference developed through the orientations of the late fifties and sixties at Baroda. Since then he has most consistently of all his contemporaries developed this formalist preoccupation with mutations of singular,

Nagji Patel

Timeless Motifs: A Study in Natural Grandeur

Abacus: A monumental sculpture

Ploughing The Field

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