Lot 392: ATUL DODIYA (B. 1959)

ATUL DODIYA (B. 1959)
Kalki
enamel paint on metal roller shutter and acrylic and marble dust on canvas
108¼ x 72 in. (274.9 x 182.9 cm.)
Executed in 2002

Valencia, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), December - February, 2009
Chicago, Walsh Gallery, Atul Dodiya: E. T. and Others, October - January, 2003
Madrid, Reina Sofia National Musuem of Contemporary Art, 2002

INDIA MODERNA, exhibition catalogue, Valencia, 2009, p.268 (illustrated)
ATUL DODIYA "E.T and others", exhibition catalogue, Chicago, 2002 (unillustrated, unpaginated)
ATUL DODIYA E.T y los otros, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 2002 (illustrated)
R. Hoskote and P. Flores, 'Choices and Dilemmas: The Curator's Story', Art India, vol. VI, issue IV, p. 26 (illustrated)
F. Nanjo, 'Dare To Confront So Much Reality', Art India, vol. VI, issue IV, p. 86 (illustrated)
Atul Dodiya, Bombay: Labyrinth Laboratory, exhibition catalogue, The Japan Foundation, 2001

Walsh Gallery, Chicago
Acquired from the above in 2003

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW YORK

Culture and history of India play an important role in shaping the barrage of images which inform Atul Dodiya's works. This work titled 'Kalki' refers to the final avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. According the ancient Hindu texts, the Puranas, Kalki is prophesied to visit and end the present age of darkness, also known as Kali Yuga. Immensely conscious of history, this piece reflects Dodiya's impressive knowledge of both current events and ancient religion and he quotes freely from the recesses of both Western and Indian art traditions.

"In the works executed on shutters, which have attracted considerable viewer attention, this creation of a layered depth in painting is concretely embodied in the use of materials.[...] In Kalki (2001), where a stylised farmer holding a skull resembles the agrarian workers in Malevich's early paintings, opening the shutter reveals the black sihouette of a man, an abstract painting by Malevich in the style of Suprematism, a ladder and a black factory." (Fumio Nanjo, 'Dare To Confront So Much Reality', Art India, vol VI, issue IV, pp. 86-87)

Choosing the common shop shutter as a medium, Dodiya alludes to India's commercial capital - Mumbai, also his home town. A careful juxtaposition of images by the artist on the shutter and canvas behind play on the notions of open/closed, private/public and what one chooses to reveal or hide. "Since the year 2000, Dodiya has produced a series of three dimensional works, using mainly metal shutters [...] They are double paintings, literally paintings within paintings, which are only complete once the interior is revealed. Plus on doing so they emphasise their semantic and narrative intention, and help us decipher it. The use of these ready-mades - and of others such as steps and slides - also allows him to literally introduce aspects of urban life, bringing commerce and craft into art's elitist spaces and reminding the viewer about specific city problems. The mixture of street culture and sophisticated allegory probably also reminds us of Mumbai's charecteristics, a futuristic metropolis yet archaic, or multicultural and folkloristic." (Enrique Juncosa, Allegory, Politics and Biography of Atul Dodiya, Madrid, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, 2002)