JEHANGIR NICHOLSON ART FOUNDATION
One of the city’s iconic contemporary artists Atul Dodiya turned the spotlight back on the art practice of Drawing. Refusing the restriction of a particular style, Atul has constantly explored new methods, new spaces, new discourses. Noted for his craftsmanship and technique, the artist provided us new insights into the art of Drawing.
The programme was structured around the exhibition “Taking the Line for a Walk”, which showcased an excellent set of rarely seen drawings from the Jehangir Nicholson collection. This session was conducted in Marathi, with the specific objective of reaching out to and engaging with the considerable Marathi-speaking and reading audience for the arts.
Atul Dodiya was born in 1959 in Bombay and is recognised as a leader to the younger generation of artists. His unique style makes use of versatile mediums, and often reference various stages in art history, popular visual culture, advertising billboards, nationalist symbols, and cinema, creating layered metaphors. He graduated from the J.J. School of Art in 1982 and the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 1992.
Dodiya has exhibited in more than twenty solo shows both in India and internationally including a mid-career retrospective at Japan Foundation Asia Centre (Tokyo, 2001), Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid, 2002), and at the Contemporary Arts Centre (Cincinnati, 2013).
Among his popular works is a self-portrait from the mid 1990s, where he depicted himself as James Bond, and where his dark glasses reflect images of two of his inspirational artists, Bhupen Kharkhar and David Hockney. In 1999, Dodiya dedicated an entire exhibition to Mahatma Gandhi titled ‘An Artist of Non-Violence’, where he interpreted Gandhi’s life with regard to the conceptual art movement.
His use of diverse materials started in 2000, when he began to paint on roller shutters. The shutters signified the binary relationship between inside and outside worlds, and were an interactive experience, as the viewer had to roll them up and down. Dodiya returned to watercolours with the very expressive ‘Tearscape’ series done in 2001, and in 2003, he created ‘Museum Closets’ with various paraphernalia representing the political and emotional texture of India.
Throughout his career, Dodiya has been the recipient of several awards as well as a fellowship. His most recent recognition was the GQ Man of the Year award in 2009. He was awarded the gold medal from the Maharashtra Government in 1982 and a Fellowship at the J.J. School of Art in 1983. He also received a French Government Scholarship (1991), the Sanskriti Award (1995), the Sotheby’s Prize (1999), and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (Italy, 1999).
Dodiya is represented in several private and public collections all around the world, including the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and Bombay; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Tate Modern, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Dodiya lives and works in Bombay.
