Expression Six - N Delhi, 2000

Ratilal is truly involved with the zest of life, and the natural relationship among man - animal environment in the rural setting is often focussed in his art work.

A Special expertise is required to realize a perfect single - time casting for sculptural forms with such complexities, when the molten metal has to flow into every kind of extensions, protrusions and masses. He achieves this so perfectly, flawlessly and neatly, that he has acclaimed himself as one of the best young sculptor handling bronze medium in India today, with casting done in lost wax method. He says, "I like the delecacy of metal, and enjoy exploiting it to the ultimate extent. This is not possible in wood."

Being a lover of the modern and the ancient art of India and of the West, he likes less the situation in which creation itself becomes like a laboratory experiment, and feelings and emotions reduced to insignificance. Therefore his forms reflect no attempt to ornaments, and all the images are inspired from the mundane.

He held several solo exhibitions at the Jahangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Art Heritage, New Delhi and other major cities of the country. His work could gain recognition at the Contemporary Indian Art Exhibition at Germany and the Indian Contemporary Art Slide Show at Royal College of Art, London, and the Contemporary Indian Sculpture, Australia.

His countless collections adorn many institutions, homes of celebrities, art galleries in India as well as abroad. One can see Ratilal's unique creations in the home of US Ambassador to India and in countries like Japan, Germany, Africa.

With all these laurels and recognitions attached to his personality, Ratilal also enjoys the exclusiveness of being the only sculptor in India to be sculpting huge pieces in solid forms.

The roots of my sculpture can be traced to Premgadh, a small village in Rajkot district, where I was born on October 15, 1961 and grew up in a peasant joint family. Even as I indulged in adolescent pranks, I paid attention to my studies, and entered my youth in the selfsame village. The affection of my brothers and sisters, and my father's cheerful temperament, courageous truthfulness and sincerity took me a long way in my career as an artist. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude when I see all those factors in my upbringing so beautifully integrated in my life. The people of that village, where the State Transport buses touch only twice or thrice a day, and where the link with the city is only to make purchases for small-scale occupations, are devoted to God. They have blind faith in religion. Completely dependent on nature for their agriculture, they have been reduced to poverty for several generations, and nurse their jealousies and hatreds.

I had started reading in newspapers and magazines about well-known Gujarati artists such as Somalal Shah, Rasiklal Parikh, Kanu Shah, Kanu Nayak, Natu Parikh, Jyoti Bhatt and Ravishankar Raval. Bendre was also one of my favourites. After passing the tenth standard, it was open to me to become a primary school teacher. I took two years' training at Morvi where I came in touch with famous literary figures, and met professional artists from outside my own small world.

During my second and final year of the Primary Teachers' Course, I appeared for the elementary and intermediate art examinations, and got more involved in art. I was doing title-drawings for some magazines at that time, and these came to be highly appreciated. A young business man from my village, Ardeshbhai Mohanbhai, took notice of them. He introduced me to Raghav Kaneria, who advised me to take art training in Baroda. Finally, in 1983 I got admitted in the Faculty of Fine Arts, took up sculpture, and was proud to be part of Kaneria's intimate circle.