At the age of 78, Moorthy Nagalingum, founder of the annual Salon de Mai and local pioneer of postcolonial painting, looks back serenely over the artistic world in Mauritius. His career has been one of many attempts, bridged with successes and failures. Time is slipping by and, according to him, so does everything else.

With his glasses on the tip of his nose and a beret on his head, Moorthy Nagalingum welcomes us to his orderly workshop. It’s hard to believe that a whole life’s work could have evolved within these few square metres where each object and painting has its specific place and meaning. The works hung on the walls are instant eye catchers. Bright colours and elegant strokes and curves are a testament to strong inspiration from a feminine world.

Moorthy Nagalingum spends much less time in exhibitions nowadays. He has no real concern about what will become of his paintings in ten, 20 or 30 years from now. However, he remains faithful to the theme he discovered studying the Beaux Arts.

‘Man has always been my favourite theme since the day I discovered the striking differences between men and women at the core of their being,’ he says. ‘At the end of the 50s, painting in Mauritius meant landscapes, solely and exclusively. That was all I knew, until I studied in India. Eight years of study allowed me to find my own identity and judge Mauritius’s fine art situation. In this country with its thousands-years-old civilisation, I realised just how much I had to learn on this planet.’

Moorthy Nagalingum came back to the island in 1963, after studying at the Madras School of Arts in India. As he desperately fought unemployment, nothing could pull him away from fine arts – not even the looks of those who view artists as people who have failed in other fields.

He tells his life story: ‘I was unemployed for many years. It was very hard, but I refused to give up. In 1978, I began teaching at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute. Then I had an idea: I decided to launch the Salon de Mai. The aim was to provide local young talent with the opportunity to see the works of famous artists from way back, and have a chance to hang their paintings next to theirs.’

Since then, the project has become a recurrent local event, with the aim of discovering and displaying the works of both established artists and beginners simultaneously. Still faithful to the 30-year tradition, Moorthy Nagalingum once again honoured the exhibition with his presence last year.