Dhruva Mistry, Kasauli, 1979

John Davies (b. 1946)

RA Collection: Art

This drawing of Dhruva Mistry RA was made in 1979 by John Davies when the two spent about six weeks at an artists' camp in Kasauli, north-west India. The camp was run by the couple Vivan Sundaram, an installation artist, and Geeta Kapur, art critic and curator. Davies was invited to the camp through the British Council and knew Sundaram when they were both students at the Slade School of Art in London.

The camp brought together 10-15 artists, mainly from India but also a few foreign artists. Other artists at the camp included Gulam Sheikh and Mrinalini Mukherjee. Located in the mountains, Kasuali was a popular escape for the urbanites of Delhi during the summer months. The artists stayed in a tin bungalow owned by Vivan and Geeta and Davies recalled that Mistry had travelled over 400 miles on a train from southern India. At this time Mistry was in his early 20s and an art student at the University of Baroda. Davies remembers him practising traditional, painstaking carving techniques while he preferred sculpting from clay.

This drawing was made when John and Dhruva spent a session drawing each other one evening as an exercise in sketching the human form in 2D to see if they could achieve a likeness. Drawing has always been a fundamental part of Davies' practice as a sculptor and he began his career as a painter. He has continually drawn despite his 'very Bauhaus' art education, which emphasised colour, shape and form over drawing.

Davies was one of the few contacts that Mistry had in London when he first moved to the city in 1981 to continue his studies at the Royal College of Art. He remembers Dhruva's shock at the cold British winters and recalls taking him to buy a second-hand army-issue winter coat. Mistry was championed by Philip King PPRA, then Head of Sculpture at the RCA, and Davies remembers the impact of Dhruva's incorporation of traditional Indian styles and forms into contemporary British sculpture.

John Davies (b. 1946) exhibited his My Ghosts tableau of sculptures at the 2019 Summer Exhibition.

(Source: interview with the artist 2019)