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Zwerger's got zing

Updated on: 09 February,2010 11:02 AM IST  | 
Sheena Thomas |

Artist Helmut Zwerger may not look like the typical Bollywood buff, but one look at his work is enough to change that perception.

Zwerger's got zing

Artist Helmut Zwerger may not look like the typical Bollywood buff, but one look at his work is enough to change that perception. He has many firsts to his credit. He's the first international artist who's immortalised noted Bollywood stars and Indian business tycoons on canvas and can rattle off their names in his Austrian accent as if he knew them intimately. Though he's never met them, he's well acquainted with them at a deeper level that transcends all barriers associated with being a celebrity. He's also the only artist whose work has travelled to space. (His friend knew an astronaut who, on a whim, wanted to take art on his spaceship.) As the expressionist and pop artist gears up for his first solo exhibition in India at the Jehangir Art Gallery, CS talks to him about his fascination with people:








People's person
When I paint people, their nationality or background doesn't matter to me. I download their pictures from the Internet and then select the one that fascinates me the most. Even though I don't personally know your Bollywood celebs, I can feel a connection with them. And even more so, I feel a connection with India. There is something that draws me to this place. This is the third time that I am visiting Mumbai. I find its people very warm and friendly.

A brush with reality
I never thought that I'd be an artist. I was a successful dentist when my wife became mentally ill. To cheer her up, I bought her a canvas and colours. The painting set languished in the living room till one boring weekend I picked it up. My first painting was a man playing a saxophone. As time passed, I kept painting while continuing my practice and was commonly referred to as the 'painting dentist'. Then a skier named Hermann Maier had a dramatic fall at the Olympics that I captured on canvas. That picture travelled all over the world and then I knew that it was time to make a difficult choice. I quit dentistry in 1999 to become an artist and that was the best decision of my life.

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