A few generations ago, the name Mario Miranda might have evoked an instinctive wry smile. A presence on newspapers read on the mid-morning train commute, or during the evening chai, the artist was a familiar friend to the work-weary Mumbaikar. “He was a genius. Yet, for all the years Mario spent in Mumbai, he rarely ever captured the buildings,” Gerard Da Cunha points out. The curator of the Mario Gallery in Goa is busy with preparations for the centenary celebrations at the Kala Academy in Panaji today.

Gerard Da Cunha