Atul Dodiya’s exhibition at NGMA displays his work from 1981 to 2013. He spoke to Iknoor Kaur about his well-known works on Mahatma Gandhi and his recent Shop Shutter series
In 1997, when India was celebrating its 50th year of Independence, Atul Dodiya sat in distress. “I was thinking about the nation — the prevalent violence. The Babri Masjid had been demolished in the North, subsequently there were riots and Bombay (present-day Mumbai) even saw serial blasts. I thought to myself, that Mahatma Gandhi was a part of us in every single way. If we went to a government office, his picture was hung there, he was on almost every postal stamp and every road around the corner was named after him, but his principles seemed to have disappeared in this glory. I wanted to address this and used the thought for my paintings,” said the artist who did a series on Gandhi in 1998-99 called Artist of Non Violence and reached the peak of his success henceforth. Over 130 of his paintings have been put on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art in an exhibition called Experiments with Truth.
Curated by Ranjit Hoskote, the exhibition shows Dodiya’s work from 1981 to 2013. He explained, “We are not calling it a retrospective, but it is a bigger show on my works. It has my works from JJ School of Art days and shows the major changes I have gone through as an artist. All the works are from different collections. There are works that are autobiographical, some pay homage to artists from our country, while some are references from other artists where I have quoted them in my work, like Ravi Varma and Pablo Picasso. It also has my new series.”
The most recent series on display is called Painted Photographs/ Paintings Photographed. “There are paintings of Mahatma Gandhi in a hyper realism state. They are realistic paintings that look like photographs. Next to this are photographs of the paintings of the great masters, particularly of the early 20th century. I wanted to show what was happening in India and Europe at the same time. This particular series of 30 works is put up separately in the Jaipur House in NGMA,” he elaborated.
The exhibition also showcases different stages of Dodiya’s work. He feels that with time and exposure, ideas and concepts in his mind evolved. He said, “When I started, my work was heavily influenced by Picasso. Then in 80s I did paintings that were autobiographical. I did my father’s portrait and also did works that spoke about my sister’s illness. In 1991-92, I got a scholarship and went to Paris. When I came back from there a major shift took place in my paintings. After seeing art in France, I became more confident. Then came a point I was under the influence of popular culture like Bollywood and the city of Bombay in itself. I often say that Bombay has had a major influence on my work as an artist because I got a sense of diverse expression.”
Once he was free of his inner inhibitions, he did a series where he painted on shop shutters. He shared, “It was an interactive work where I painted on shutters and once the shutters opened there was a painting on the wall too. The idea of shutters came from the time when curfew was announced on streets during riots.”
The exhibition will be on display till December 29. Post this, Dodiya will be working on his next show that will be put up at his gallery in Mumbai. “It will open on January 20. Next year I will also be going to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. I have been called there because I had some Picasso references in my works and they got selected. After that, in December 2014, I will do an exhibition in Mumbai,” he said.