Drawing

Dhruva Mistry was born in Kanjari, (Gujarat) in 1957. He studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda (1974-79), graduating with distinction and a gold medal. He went on to gain an MA at Baroda (1979-81) and then came to Britain on a British Council scholarship to take an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art (1981-83). Mistry has since gained international recognition and many prizes. He was elected Royal Academician in 1991 and was the first Indian sculptor to be made Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1993. In 1997 he returned to Vadadora and in 1997 was appointed Professor, Head of Sculpture and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Baroda. He was awarded an honorary CBE in 2001.

Mistry's work ranges from huge public commissions to maquettes and wall reliefs, related in part to Hinduism and Buddhism, but also encompassing influences from the West - Egyptian and Cycladic art and European traditions of figurative sculpture. Not all of his work is narrative; in some pieces he explores the processes of making art and the inevitable intellectual debate that ensues between artist and viewer, whether implied or expressed.