Important Notice

Atul Dodiya’s oeuvre is full of references to cinema, from Bollywood films like Baazigar and Sholay to the works of auteur Satyajit Ray, stars like Amitabh Bachchan and iconic Hindi cinema villains. This present work, named The Titanic Days after the 1928 René Magritte painting it features, is characteristic of Dodiya’s quotational practice which puts pictorial elements from diverse, sometimes surprising, sources in dialogue... Atul Dodiya’s oeuvre is full of references to cinema, from Bollywood films like Baazigar and Sholay to the works of auteur Satyajit Ray, stars like Amitabh Bachchan and iconic Hindi cinema villains. This present work, named The Titanic Days after the 1928 René Magritte painting it features, is characteristic of Dodiya’s quotational practice which puts pictorial elements from diverse, sometimes surprising, sources in dialogue with each other. Here, Dodiya assembles an image of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and director Kiran Rao with representations of works of art by René Magritte, Barbara Kruger and Ravinder Reddy.

The artist attests, “I was floored by Satyajit Ray, the European New Wave and Japanese cinema. Popular Bollywood imagery provides the element of humour which I bring in my work. As soon as you see Sridevi or Pran in my painting, you smile. I believe in hybrid experiences and particularly like when people are baffled. They spend more time with the work, like wondering-why are Hrithik Roshan, Gandhi, Mohammed Rafi, Johnny Walker, Ambedkar, Lord Krishna and Saint Francis all together in one frame? I am a great admirer of miniature paintings, and also early Renaissance paintings of the 15th century. I refuse to have a singular approach and crave for attempting new things, which definitely means taking risks.” (Sukant Deepak, “Inside Artist Atul Dodiya’s Mind”, IANSlife.in, 30 September 2020, online)

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