Jyoti Bhatt: Parallels that Meet

Artist: Jyoti Bhatt
Discussant: Roobina Karode

August 28, 2009 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Jyoti Bhatt (b. 1934) is one of India’s acclaimed artists, whose artistic oeuvre spans painting, prints and photography. An alumnus of MS. University of Baroda, he studied painting under N. S .Bendre, K.G. Subramanyan and Sankho Chaudhuri and later joined as faculty in the same university. His artistic career started in the early 1950s which drew inspiration from the Bauhaus, European modernism, American Pop Art and indigenous cultural practices. A significant artist of our times, his work casts a critical eye on the dualities of contemporary reality and the human condition.

In this presentation, Jyoti Bhatt will talk about his drawings, paintings, prints and photography and the discussion will focus on the key areas as below:

• Reading the dilemmas of East and West in the 1960s and 1970s and encounters with the changing nature of art practice in India.

• Re-examining old forms and practices and their relevance within new circumstances.

• Baroda as a laboratory for creative experimentation and fresh ideas.

• Elaborate upon cross media experimentation and cross breeding of visual imagery, emphasizing the artist’s developments in print making, painting and photography. This includes the play of text and image in articulating the visual form.

• The artist as a juggler with a bag full of visual tricks laced with wit, humour and satire.

• Jyoti Bhatt’s art practice as it relates to the presence of and essence of the nature of Indian contemporary reality.

The discussant for this program is Roobina Karode, an art critic, educator, writer and curator, based in Delhi.