Lot 532: ATUL DODIYA (B. 1959)

ATUL DODIYA (B. 1959)
The Yogi and the Towers (Black River)
signed, inscribed, titled and dated 'ATUL DODIYA Title: The Yogi and the Towers (Black river) 2002 Watercolor, Acrylic with Marble dust and charcoal on paper 70" x 45" ATUL' (on the reverse)
watercolor, acrylic with marble dust and charcoal on paper
69 x 44 in. (175.3 x 111.8 cm.)
Painted in 2002

New Delhi, Gallery Espace, Leela (Haridwar: Worlds Within, Worlds Without), December 2002 - January 2003

Leela (Haridwar: Worlds Within, Worlds Without), exhibition catalogue, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, pp. 6-7

Dodiya was in the midst of a residency in the holy town of Haridwar when he watched in shock and horror as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York burned to the ground. This work was painted in response to the conflicting emotions experienced by the artist, where the feeling of peace and spirituality that Haridwar had to offer was shattered by an overwhelming sense of violence.

"Yogi and the Towers (Black River) is the penultimate affirmative, death-defying image. The yogi in the foreground, unruffled, stith pragana (detached) is framed against virulent red earth and sky the colour of blood. In the distance loom trees seemingly encased in shrouds, a black river from the netherworld replete with sailboat seemingly adrift, flows out of the margins of the canvas like expanding bloodstain even as the yogi arches forward in heroic hanumana dhwajasana: penis rising like awakened snake flowing vital sap, kundalini life force upwards through and into his erect spine. Power incarnate, this Dronacharya figure upholds the towers on his defiant chest that has for that riveting moment become the brave, unvanquished, unyielding surface of the Earth. The invocation of the original Braveheart, heroic Hanuman, in the title is no coincidence but deliberate highlighting of the spirit of the image. The swan in the margin, neatly encased, holds out assurance of the contained serenity that is constant, unchanging, invariable. The "This too shall pass" epigram is subverted to depict "This too HAS passed" assurance. (S. Mehra, Leela, exhibition catalogue, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, January 2002)