Atul Dodiya, Part II

Atul Dodiya

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You did a series of paintings on Gandhi that youve said truly changed your life.

I was painting Gandhi with respect for many years, but in 1997, when India was celebrating 50 years of independence, we were invited to create works of art. And then, I said, well, fine, we have freedom, and we are all happy, but India still has lots of problems: immense poverty, not great leadership, conflict within the communitiesand Gandhi fought [to address] all this, you know?

As an artist, I felt that I would like to depict Gandhi, and I painted something that was not very happy. In fact, it was a show about celebrating the 50 years of independence, but my work was called Lamentation. After that I realized I would like to paint some more works of Gandhi. The series that resulted was called An Artist of Nonviolence, where I selected some of the events of Gandhis life, things in which he was involved, like fighting the British.

I feel that it is not just India that is in need of Gandhi, but everywhere. There is so much hate, so much intolerance, the terrorism and killings, and Gandhis philosophy of nonviolence is very relevant today. It is not something we just should ignore. Otherwise, we will be doomed, if we keep on being aggressive and aggressively attacking each other.

Images of bones recur constantly in your work. What do they signify for you?

After the Gandhi series, it was very natural that my work become more political and socially concerned. I did a series called Tearscape after that. It was of images of a female figure located in a kind of abstract space. Often she was nude, and it was almost like a lunatic figure, or I would say a beggar. I do see beggars a lot in India, but this figure is much more than thatshe represents the strength of women, their power, the way women were neglected or had to suffer compared to men.

While doing this series, I started drawing very free figures, floating, dancing, but showing inside their figures their bones. Obviously, these figures were lean, they were tired, they were hungry, they were almost about to die. By showing the bones and the structure inside, I felt I could show all that agony.

But, partly, it was also a visual issue. I must tell you that if I dont show bones, then I dont know what to do inside the area of the figure! I have to have some device to make it visually engaging. So I think the bones work both ways. They tell you about the sad aspect of life and the sensuality of the nude figure gets reduced. Visually, it is also a very good thing.

The contemporary Indian art market is doing very well at auctions today, and contemporary Indian artists such as yourself are becoming the new favorites of many collectors. Why do you think your work, and that of your peers, is enjoying such a strong global attraction now?

For a long time, Indian artists have been painting and creating very good works, but the response or the recognition, particularly in the West, was not much. The works were not shown for a long time. There were not many catalogs, there were not many books.

So the [current interest] all started with people producing catalogs; and then people started talking about the works within India; and then Indian artists were invited by some museums to do shows. Like I had a show at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and the responses we saw from the Western curators was quite positive. And then gradually, Indians started looking at this art. Obviously it should be that way, that our own people should kind of first start the acquiring, especially as the economy has built up.

My generation, in the last 10 years particularly, has had lots of exposure in terms of traveling, in terms of showing, in terms of acquisitions of works by Indiansand now non-Indians as well in ever growing numbers. Both India as a whole and the countrys artists have become a lot more confident.

Who are some of your peers whose artwork you admire?

There are quite a few artists doing wonderful work. Sheela Gowda is showing in New York, and she is a wonderful artist I like very much. Subodh Gupta has quite a recognition in Europe and in the West. He is doing some wonderful sculpture pieces. I have always responded to Bhupen Khakhar. Unfortunately, he is no more, but years back, he was quite well-known. He had a retrospective of his work in the Reina Sofia Museum. He was the first Indian artist shown there, in 1992.