I was told my art wasn’t intelligent enough, says Indian-origin creator of world’s largest painting

MELBOURNE: Twenty hours a day for seven months went into painting ‘The Journey of Humanity’, the

largest painting

on

canvas

and the second most expensive by a living artist.

Sacha Jafri

, the British artist with Indian origins, is donating the $62 million he got for the 70 pieces of his painting — snapped up by French cryptocurrency billionaire Andre Abdoune last month — to Dubai Cares, Unesco, Unicef and the Global Gift Foundation. Because art, he said, is meant to ease suffering.

“You are fighting against a big machine, which is the art world … People from the art world said this painting was not intelligent enough and they would not include it in art fairs. It is almost embarrassing to engage in this conversation,” Jafri, 44, told TOI. “The last thing I ever want is to be intelligent. My art is about disengaging the brain and engaging the soul.”

The idea for the painting came to him because of the pandemic. “A lot of people lost their lives, families were torn apart, many suffered financially. Kids in the slums of India, Bangladesh and Indonesia were cut off from food, water and aid. I thought, if we cannot make a change now, we never will,” he said. So, he reached out to children from 140 countries. “I put a call out for children to send in their artwork about how they were feeling during Covid-19 — their fears, dreams and aspirations. It could be a child at a refugee camp in Syria who put their thumb in mud, or someone in Africa making imprints with leaves.

These artwork submissions formed portals that are part of the painting, which was created with hundreds of layers upon layers and 6,300 litres of paint — the size of two football fields and the Guinness World Record holder for the world's largest art canvas. The painting itself will be housed in a museum Abdoune will build in Dubai, where he plans to fly in underprivileged children from all over the world. “The proceeds will now help the poorest children in the world, suffering the most because of the pandemic … We have set things up to make sure it finds its way to the right places on the ground,” Jafri said. Part of the money will also be used to bring the internet to the communities most in need. “We have partnered with Facebook, Google and 40 education ministries around the world to provide the internet to those who do not have it.”

He has, in the past, engaged with art in India. “The art scene in India is superb. I did a show, The Indian Greats, with the works of (FN) Souza, (SH) Raza and (MF) Hussain 15 years ago. The old guards. I bounced ideas off of Hussain and Raza (Souza had died by then). There is a beautiful richness in Indian art. I love the honesty … It is one of the richest art scenes in the world in terms of creators.”

In fact, his father’s side of the family hails from a royal family of Allahabad. “My family originated in Persia. We lost everything when Pakistan was carved out and had to start over … I don’t know everything about the royal connection, but my grandfather was a poet. The Pakistani side of the family was very passionate and the Indian side, soulful and loving.” His father was an ambassador, his last posting in the UK, where Jafri was born in 1977.

And there is another royal connection. “(Prince) William was in school with me. He is a dear friend of mine. I have worked with him for 15 years … I am the artist for his charity, The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,” he said.

Jafri’s own process is an intensive one. “I paint for 20 hours straight and then, I pass out. Four hours later, I wake up and assess my work … I am in a trance when I paint,” he said. It might literally be so. When he was younger, scientists had scanned his brain. He was severely dyslexic, with social IQ off the charts and comprehension IQ way below the charts. “Both could not be plotted. They said it should not exist because of the polar opposites … For 15 years of my life, things didn’t work out for me. Then, I found art in

Eton

,” he added. “It was later that they realised I would paint in a meditative state. My brain activity generated theta waves (usually generated when someone daydreams) when I painted. You can’t create in theta state (the brain generates beta waves when it is actively engaged). But I do.”

For now, Jafri is focusing on working with charities and will be visiting India in the next few weeks. “My 18-year retrospective will restart in 2022. It is running now in Dubai at the Leila Heller Gallery. I don’t have any art projects lined up for now. I am going to take a break."