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Painter Chintan Upadyay resists viewing his work in evolutionary terms, preferring to regard the creation of each work as an independent event proceeding according to its idiosyncratic requirements. He has resisted easy definition from the start. As a young painter, he gained exposure to two rich and divergent styles of painting. Growing up in Rajasthan, Upadyay was introduced to the tradition of miniature paintings native to the state. More... Painter Chintan Upadyay resists viewing his work in evolutionary terms, preferring to regard the creation of each work as an independent event proceeding according to its idiosyncratic requirements. He has resisted easy definition from the start. As a young painter, he gained exposure to two rich and divergent styles of painting. Growing up in Rajasthan, Upadyay was introduced to the tradition of miniature paintings native to the state. More intimately, he became versed in the styles of abstract expressionism through the influence of his father, himself a teacher at the Jaipur School of Art and member of the Takhman 28 group. But Upadyay resisted the easy assimilation of these influences, leaving the Jaipur School of Art to continue his studies in Baroda. He explains, "I feared that I wouldn't grow there."

In Baroda, he found that a narrative style of painting was in vogue, as emblematized by Gulam Shaikh and Bhoopain Kulkar. He cites the two artists as great influences, yet he decided to move in a different direction with his own work. Intrigued by the scope for meaningful juxtapositions, he began experimenting with a series of still lifes. "When you place two objects together, you create a relationship. In my paintings, I sought to analyze this relationship."

In his final year at art school, Upadyay says that he "found my metaphor: to depict objects in a phallic manner," in order to communicate the commodification of sexuality. In one untitled work, he depicts a telephone as a phallus, a representation intended to exemplify masculine consumerism. Among his influences during this period he names the images of roadside advertisements, and kitsch. On finishing his studies, Upadyay moved to Mumbai, attracted by the cosmopolitan tenor of the city. "Bombay has a different kind of energy from the north, one that triggers physical and psychological effects on the body." When he arrived in the city, he experienced a sense of alienation from its inhabitants which he translated into "pictures that are alien-like". He began experimenting with caricature, satirizing the world around him in a series of paintings busy with visual jokes and puns.

Upadyay created "eerie images," intended to "hammer an established aesthetics". Effectively, his paintings are themselves "critiques of painterly, established norms." He regularly leaves parts of his canvases unfinished, in order to indicate "my interest in present time." He explains that to him, an unfinished painting suggests the possibility that the artist may return to complete the piece, and thus creates a tension within the work. In each painting, he seeks to instill a sense of movement and possibility.

This philosophy equally describes his own approach to art, which is that of a quick-change artist. "After four or five paintings, I usually switch to a new style." He states that "I don't want my paintings to be a signature," explaining that when an artist develops a distinctive style, it is a form of self-parody or self-caricature that is more of an economic response to the world than an artistic one. "A signature is created for the market - people want a signature" style. It is this marketability that Upadyay resists.

Currently, Upadyay has begun working with collage, culling pornographic images from magazines and incorporating them into paintings. Additionally, he has created several soft-form, toy-like sculptures of multi-colored snakes. At heart, however, he identifies himself as a painter.

"My philosophy is created work by work. I don't decide beforehand what I will do; I have to go through the process of painting." When painting, he "starts with color. Many layers and forms come and go until I get something, and develop it. I end with the surface that I intended."

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