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Lot Essay
Atul Dodiya first chose the common shop shutter as a medium in 1999 - 2000. Alluding to India's commercial capital and his home town, Mumbai, the works included a careful juxtaposition of images on the shutter and canvas, playing with the notions of open/closed, private/public and what one chooses to reveal or hide. The narrative of these three dimensional works would change and depend upon whether the metal shutter is open, closed or partially down. Almost ten years later Dodiya revisited the shutter to create a new series of paintings on canvas. "These images of roller shutters are neither austere conceptualist devices, nor abstract depictions of hardware pared down to its mechanical logic. Rather, they are themselves Dodiya paintings: images shaped from images, hand crafted from surprising collocations of pictorial and textual data drawn from diverse sources, surfaces annotated with extracts from the artist's copious private archive of references." (R. Hoskote, Dodiya Standard Time, New Delhi, p. 51)
Referring to artists, events and historical figures in these canvases, Dodiya purposefully chooses how much he wants to reveal to the viewer, controlling the relationship between the shutter and image behind. Culture and history of India play an important role in shaping the barrage of images which inform his works. In Pause-II Dodiya juxtaposes Tyeb Mehta's iconic falling figure with an image of New York's twin towers hours before they burned to the ground. "These paintings suggest the rebus, since they often operate through sentences formed from images; the palimpsest, through their use of multiple layers, with each stratum partly visible and affecting the others; and the collage, with kaleidoscopic and vividly unstable relationships developing constantly among their heterogeneous elements" (Ibid, p.56)
Regarded as one of the leading artists of his generation, Dodiya has become a widely recognized figurehead in South Asian contemporary art influencing many of the country's burgeoning younger artists. A mid-career retrospective of Dodiya's works was held at The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi in 2013. He has also participated in many international museum exhibitions including the Kochi Biennale, 2012, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2010), Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008), The Helsinki City Art Museum (2006), Tamayo Museum, Mexico City (2004), Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid (2002), The Tate, London (2000). He also participated in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. In May 2013, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati put on the first solo exhibition in the United States for the artist.
Referring to artists, events and historical figures in these canvases, Dodiya purposefully chooses how much he wants to reveal to the viewer, controlling the relationship between the shutter and image behind. Culture and history of India play an important role in shaping the barrage of images which inform his works. In Pause-II Dodiya juxtaposes Tyeb Mehta's iconic falling figure with an image of New York's twin towers hours before they burned to the ground. "These paintings suggest the rebus, since they often operate through sentences formed from images; the palimpsest, through their use of multiple layers, with each stratum partly visible and affecting the others; and the collage, with kaleidoscopic and vividly unstable relationships developing constantly among their heterogeneous elements" (Ibid, p.56)
Regarded as one of the leading artists of his generation, Dodiya has become a widely recognized figurehead in South Asian contemporary art influencing many of the country's burgeoning younger artists. A mid-career retrospective of Dodiya's works was held at The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi in 2013. He has also participated in many international museum exhibitions including the Kochi Biennale, 2012, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2010), Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008), The Helsinki City Art Museum (2006), Tamayo Museum, Mexico City (2004), Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid (2002), The Tate, London (2000). He also participated in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. In May 2013, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati put on the first solo exhibition in the United States for the artist.