Dhruva Mistry’s stunning sculptures and Dialectal Image series

A few of Dhruva Mistry bronzes (1987 – 1990) in a new exhibition at Grosvenor Vadehra are maquettes he made for larger public sculptures. For instance, ‘Woman 3’ is a study for one his most important large scale pieces called The River, which is located in Birmingham. This sculpture has been affectionately nicknamed ‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi’ by the locals. He depicts a bold classical idealized form of a reclining female nude sitting in the middle of a large fountain. Whilst this is perhaps the most used form in sculpture, Mistry was able to add to some qualities to it that were truly unique to him.

Dhruva Mistry’s Dialectal Image series is also included in this exhibition. This series differs from the other works as they are assemblages or collages of metal and forms. Despite being disparate objects they join to form a whole in this instance as in most of Misty works the human figure. The term ‘dialectal’ means a version of a language; in this instance it means a version of a sculpture or image.

In this series there are strong references to tribal imagery, particularly the masked figures, which in turn are a reference to Picasso who was the joint founder of Cubism. Although cerebral, he was known to have been inspired by tribal art. The concept of Cubism was to incorporate on the two dimensional image the various images of an object just as the mind does. For example when we think of an apple we think of it from every angle not just as a flat image.

When it came to sculpture Picasso turned to Julio Gonzales with whom they recreated the language of sculpture by re assembling or constructing an object rather than traditional sculpture in clay which is based upon on modeling. What Picasso and Gonzalez did was to revolutionize sculpture and allow artists such as Richard Serra and Anthony Caro to push the boundaries. Here he is doing the same…

(Information courtesy: Grosvenor Vadehra)