Important Notice

Titled Pregnant Father, the present lot features seahorses, the only creatures where the male gives birth. It signals the beginnings of Dodiya's shift to the allegorical. This preference gained momentum in the 1990s when he "...renounced this [photorealistic] idiom in favour of a metaphorically accomplished approach that was informed by conceptual questions about art-making and nourished by dialogue with diverse expressive practices... Titled Pregnant Father, the present lot features seahorses, the only creatures where the male gives birth. It signals the beginnings of Dodiya's shift to the allegorical. This preference gained momentum in the 1990s when he "...renounced this [photorealistic] idiom in favour of a metaphorically accomplished approach that was informed by conceptual questions about art-making and nourished by dialogue with diverse expressive practices spanning painting, sculpture, cinema and poetry." (Gayatri Sinha ed., "Atul Dodiya: Between the Baroque and the Minimal", Voices of Change: 20 Indian Artists, Mumbai: The Marg Foundation, 2010, p. 114)

Speaking about the influences he integrates in his work, Dodiya says, "I feel strongly about art from the past, and treasure the sheer joy of seeing art of diverse kinds. I like everything. Old Masters, abstractionists, drawings, installation, manuscripts, tapestries, maps, Johns, Grunewald. When I look at art, whether it is Donald Judd or Joseph Beuys, I ask: Where does this come from? How is this done? How to resolve such images visually, practically? I think I still have a students approach... I am still like a student moving from one assignment to another, enjoying each one." (The artist quoted in Sinha ed., p. 129)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site