An impressive showcase of works by India’s prominent artists

Nilima Sheikh, Bhupen Khakhar, Arpita Singh, Atul Dodiya, Sudhir Patwardhan, and Jayashree Chakravarty are among the prominent artists from India, whose work featured at a group show courtesy Grosvenor Gallery, London.

Most of the artists, who form part of 'Narrations, Quotations and Commentaries’, work in an overtly narrative style - whether fully or partially. Bhupen Khakkar’s art works virtually violate that thin socially recognized boundary between what could be termed the ‘decorous’ and the ‘obscene/unacceptable’. His obsession to explore as part of the ‘degenerate’ in art practice prompted the artist to encounter and create a language that comprised an interim between western illusionism and traditional forms.

The late artist's work has essentially archived the lapses, deprivations, desires and repressions - within the society as well as a ‘societal being’ – based on minute observations of the everyday life that plays a key role in them. The artist tends to focus on the ‘typical’ characters the viewer might often notice in the familiar Indian landscape. His idea always had been to represent the marginal, striving to show something which was always there, albeit seldom got looked at…

Appropriating eccentric idioms of pop-culture and kitsch art coupled with and digitally manipulated gloss, Atul Dodiya’s visual idiom is unique. It is different from Sudhir Patwardhan’s style - more corporeal, particularly in terms of space satiation. However, both of them invariably tend towards the revelation of bits of repressed histories.

If the latter’s practice has a continuous narrative structure, which reads almost like a novel, Atul Dodiya’s work speaks through acute aphoristic heavyset statements. Not just a celebration of popular culture, it recognizes the importance of engaging with the field of cultural production, ripe with varied possibilities. Transcending the narrative mode of painting, the latter explores the social milieu we belong to with a touch of humor and irony.

His work often quotes that of other influential artists, such as David Hockney and Bhupen Khakhar, while reflecting on the act of painting. His works - well-grounded with specific cultural and textual references – carry a complex structure of statements – never ever meretricious.