Remembering Hanif Kureshi, the artist credited with popularising street art in India

Hanif Kureshi, the co-founder of the St+art India Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that works on art projects in public spaces, died on 22 September aged 41 after a battle with cancer. As the artistic director of St+art India, Kureshi led projects that saw vibrant murals and installations created in cities including Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. He sought to democratise art with his work and bring it out of white-cube spaces. Today, he is widely credited as the person who popularised street art in India. Born in Palitana, a small town in the state of Gujarat, Kureshi was fascinated by typography. He wanted to be a street painter. He did not come from a family of artists, but even “when he was younger he would spend time with guys who would do sign painting, with people who would make number plates,” Arjun Bahl, a co-founder of St+art India, tells The Art Newspaper. Kureshi pursued a degree in visual arts from the esteemed Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He worked in advertising for a few years, but “he wasn’t satisfied with the kind of work which was happening even though [he was employed at] a pretty cutting-edge agency,” Bahl said. Kureshi, Bahl...