Atul Dodiya
(b.1959, Mumbai)

Atul Dodiya is one of the most celebrated artists of the Indian contemporary art scene. His paintings and poignant installations deal with several issues such as pop culture, the growing violence in the city he spent his childhood in, his family, love, Gandhi and cinema among others. His images do the story telling as he goes along. Realities affect his sensibilities to a great extent, which as a result shows in his art.

Atul came into prominence in 1999 with his series on Mahatma Gandhi, where the painter sought to reconstruct images from a forgotten biography of the leader. His watercolors and sensitive brush strokes on canvas gave Gandhi a new lease of life. A rich burnt sienna affirmed the strength and spirit of Gandhi beneath the frail 'minimalist' body. Luminous yellow-whites merged into deep ambers. According to Atul, “There was a strong sense of aesthetics running through Gandhi's life- whether it is khadi, (homespun fabric) his choice of dress, the architecture of the Sabarmati ashram, fasting, non-cooperation or the charkha (the wheel used for spinning the yarn). He had a fine artistic way of doing things.”

Extremely political, Dodiya has consistently innovated with material and medium- each new suite of works done over the past decade has been notable for both content and form; his recent assemblages, for instance were an evocative showcase of personal memorabilia, while his postmodernist revisiting of the life of Gandhi highlighted an enviable fluency with watercolour. However, the turning point in Dodiya’s works came about with his visit to Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. It enabled him to see things differently, not merely to create within a context, instead to create a context. He thereby replaced his photo realistic approach with a flexible mode which culminated into works like ‘The Bombay Buccaneer’ (1994) a take on the poster for the Bollywood film, ‘Baazigar.’

Dodiya then moved on to gather international acclaim with ‘Bombay: labyrinth/ laboratory’ (2001) at the Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Tokyo which had a selection of his paintings on store shutters along with others created with readymade objects, reflecting his concerns pertaining to the Indian middle class aspirations and the impact of globalization on traditions.

Further on, with more recent works like ‘The Wet Sleeves of My Paper Robe (Sabari in her Youth: After Nandalal Bose)’ at Bodhi Art Mumbai, 2006, a result of Dodiya’s residency at the STPI Singapore and ‘Saptapadi: Scenes from Marriage (regardless)’ (Vadhera Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2007) one can sense Dodiya’s contemplative approach in contemporizing the whole essence of his subject matters thereby carrying forth the energies of India’s visual as well as narrative arts.

His images do the story telling as he goes along. Reality affects his sensibilities to a great extent, and thus his art.

Atul Dodiya lives and works in Mumbai, India.