While carpenters pasted together layers of plywood sheets, Patel created abstract patterns on them with a blowtorch at his Baroda studio, before the work was transported to art curator Asit Shah’s engineering products factory, where it was covered with stainless-steel plates. “It is a difficult process but nothing is challenging if you know the basics. One should keep experimenting with new medium or it gets boring. The market should never decide the course of an artist,” said Patel.

The non-conformism was a reminder to the Group 1890 that Patel established with artists J. Swaminathan, Himmat Shah and Gulam Mohammed Sheikh in 1962 to spearhead a new movement, against the idealism associated with the Bengal school. “We were a group of friends who came together with an aim to do something different. We had fun for some months and then went our way, but we are still in touch,” said Patel, as he readied to welcome his friends to his solo exhibition, and unpacked some more abstract sculptures.