Ajay De had a grand opening of his show on 16th November at the Jehangir Art Gallery. Jehangir was buzzing with activity since morning that day. It felt like we were in for a political rally of sorts. There were loud speakers and red flags adorning the entire area. The show titled “The Last Communist” had paintings that were predominantly red black & white. In tune with the color scheme of the paintings Ajay had got the whole floor of the hall covered in black. 
No one would imagine a soft spoken man like Ajay De, was part of the Communist Student Movement in Kolkata as a young college boy. His paintings mainly comprised of processions and faces but one that intrigued me the most, was the one that had ants destroying the communist flag depicting the end of communism.
The paintings were interspersed with photographs & graffiti and not to forget, sculptures too. The mood was charged with a recording of sounds of gunshots and sirens, which played every couple of minutes. Ajay was in high spirits with his cap & greeted all the guests that attended; Paresh Maity, Navaz Singhania, Prahlad Kakkar, T V Personality Mahesh Thakur & politico Ram Kadam with his entourage of body guards.
All in all it was a superb show put together.
Vinita Mirchandani - http://www.studio3india.com/
