Mahatma Gandhi (2017)

„Mahatma Gandhi” (2017) is devoted to the life and spiritual heritage of Mahatma Gandhi, the figure of the Indian struggle for independence. While leading nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women’s rights, build religious and ethnic harmony and eliminate the injustices of the caste system, Gandhi supremely applied the principles of nonviolent civil disobedience (Satyagraha), playing a key role in freeing India from foreign domination. Having lived for 21 years in South Africa, he encountered and lived through racial segregation and discrimination of Indian immigrants, experiences which only intensified his desire for peace. Despite his approach, he was often imprisoned for his actions, sometimes for years, but he accomplished his aim in 1947, when India gained its independence from Britain.

At once lyrical and unruly, meditative and demanding, the compelling abstraction of Mahatma Gandhi draws viewers in towards a consideration of the fundamental qualities of the human condition. Despite the historically specific allusion to India, Vîrtosu wanted to create an art that would deal with the universal rather than the specific, yet be charged with intuitive feeling; that would be true to its medium, be quintessentially what it was physically, yet also evoke powerful reverberations beyond its mere physical appearance. Unencumbered by figuration, “Mahatma Gandhi” communicates feeling through the universal language of gesture. There is a palpable physicality to the present work; viewers can sense the movement of paint across its surface – its flicks, its accumulations, and its layering. To further translate Mahatma Gandhi to a basic pictorial language, Vîrtosu employs a serene combination of colors. Achieving an extraordinary embodiment of intense, undeniable poignancy, “Mahatma Gandhi” stands as a lasting testament to Vîrtosu’s sensing of the universal values that create a peaceful world.