'The exhibition, "Experiments with Truth: Atul Dodiya, Works 1981-2013", offers viewers an extensive survey of the career of one of India’s most significant contemporary artists. Curated by cultural theorist and poet Ranjit Hoskote, this exhibition brings together more than 80 works by Dodiya, spanning a versatile artistic practice that includes paintings in oil, acrylic and watercolour, mixed-media works, sculpture-installations, assemblages and photography. It will show, for the first time, paintings made when Dodiya was a student at the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art, Bombay, in the early 1980s. Indeed, Experiments with Truth is bookended between Dodiya’s student paintings and his most recent suite of work, a series titled Painted Photographs/Paintings Photographed, which creates a startling interplay between the Gandhian independence movement and the Western artistic avant-garde movements.
The exhibition draws its title from the autobiography of Dodiya’s abiding hero and constant point of reference in political, cultural, philosophical and spiritual contexts: Mahatma Gandhi. Dodiya’s own artistic journey has been conducted as a series of ‘experiments with truth’. A key question that dominates his work is that of the truth of the artist’s experience, when experience itself has become volatile, fragmented and elusive. In his work, rival definitions of truth are tested out in a variety of contexts. These range from aesthetic choices – between photorealism and an amplified metaphorical approach – to questions of identity, of belonging in a secular nation-state threatened by revanchist forces. The Mahatma, as well as the artists Nandalal Bose, Benodebehari Mukherjee, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Tyeb Mehta, Gerhard Richter and Bhupen Khakhar, have played a prominent role in shaping Dodiya’s world-view, and occur in numerous references that he makes to them in his art, which is transcultural and transhistorical in its range. Works by several of these masters will be part of the exhibition, providing the viewer with reference points. The exhibition is demarcated into thirteen zones across the NGMA’s New Wing and Jaipur House, inviting viewers into an intense engagement with Dodiya’s art, arranged according to thematic and chronological criteria.' - from museum's website.
Includes an artist's biography.
The exhibition draws its title from the autobiography of Dodiya’s abiding hero and constant point of reference in political, cultural, philosophical and spiritual contexts: Mahatma Gandhi. Dodiya’s own artistic journey has been conducted as a series of ‘experiments with truth’. A key question that dominates his work is that of the truth of the artist’s experience, when experience itself has become volatile, fragmented and elusive. In his work, rival definitions of truth are tested out in a variety of contexts. These range from aesthetic choices – between photorealism and an amplified metaphorical approach – to questions of identity, of belonging in a secular nation-state threatened by revanchist forces. The Mahatma, as well as the artists Nandalal Bose, Benodebehari Mukherjee, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Tyeb Mehta, Gerhard Richter and Bhupen Khakhar, have played a prominent role in shaping Dodiya’s world-view, and occur in numerous references that he makes to them in his art, which is transcultural and transhistorical in its range. Works by several of these masters will be part of the exhibition, providing the viewer with reference points. The exhibition is demarcated into thirteen zones across the NGMA’s New Wing and Jaipur House, inviting viewers into an intense engagement with Dodiya’s art, arranged according to thematic and chronological criteria.' - from museum's website.
Includes an artist's biography.
Alternative title
Works 1981-2013
Access level
Onsite
Location code
MON.DOA
Language
English
Keyword
painting,  watercolour painting,  multimedia art,  archive,  survey exhibition,  solo exhibition
Publication/Creation date
2013
No of pages
143
ISBN / ISSN
Nil
No of copies
1
Content type
artist monograph, 
catalogue
Chapter headings
How to Converse with History: A Curatorial Reflection on Experiments with Truth: Atul Dodiya Works 1981-2013 - Ranjit HOSKOTE
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