Tsunami was Nirmala Dutt’s last solo exhibition during her lifetime. The artist had been on a hiatus from art-making in the preceding years due to the delicate state of her health. But the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26 December 2004 (also known as the “Boxing Day Tsunami”), which ravaged villages and towns along the coasts of Sumatra all the way to Sri Lanka, spurred her to the canvas once again. Over thirty canvases describe a clear blue sky and the turbulent surges of a sea of ashes. Despite her physical frailty she says she felt her “energy flowing from canvas to canvas”, driven by emotion and the call to keep working, which she deemed a gift from God. As a viewer we feel that same sense of awe, of being engulfed by something beyond our control. Complex narratives, moral and spiritual questions, darkness and light, lie deep in the expressive sweep of Nirmala’s paintings.