Lot 76: A Crow

ATUL DODIYA (B. 1959) A Crow inscribed, titled amd dated 'ATUL DODIYA - "A crow" - 2011 - 54" x 78" - oil, acrylic, watercolour, oil bar and marble dust on canvas Atul Dodiya 2011' (on the reverse) oil, acrylic, watercolour, oil bar and marble dust on canvas 54 x 78 in. (137.2 x 198.1 cm.) Executed in 2011

137.2 x 198.1 cm.

Mumbai, Chemould Prescott Road, Bako Exists. Imagine, 2011

A Crow is a text-based painting, which is part of a larger series of works called Bako Exists. Imagine. Each work in the series is a fantastical poetic episode citing contemporary Gujarati poet Labhshanker Thaker. The original poem describes a young boy called Bako who meets Bapu, or Mahatma Gandhi, in his sleep. The two characters in this strange and shared dream have a playful, amusing and pleasant exchange. Here, the written words describe the encounter between Gandhi and Bako concerning an everyday crow. Dodiya's work combines the written words and seemingly associated semiotic references with an image of Rabindranath Tagore's iconic bird. Tagore himself chose to depict these exotic, fantastical birds as he described them: "a probable animal that had unaccountably missed its chance of existence [...] a bird that can only soar in our dreams." Dodiya uses this visual citation of Tagore perhaps as a way to allow the viewer to enter into Bako's dream of Bapu. The Bhau Daji Lad museum in Mumbai is scheduled to launch a major exhibition of works by Atul Dodiya in December 2014.