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“Without trying to use it as a vehicle to document something, colour has a very emotional trait, directing us to enjoy the non-peripheral. In sound, there is no periphery, and similarly, a drop of colour does not have a periphery either, in terms of the visual experience.” - NATVAR BHAVSAR

Natvar Bhavsar’s visual language was deeply influenced by his early years in India, surrounded by vividly colourful textiles, rangoli and... “Without trying to use it as a vehicle to document something, colour has a very emotional trait, directing us to enjoy the non-peripheral. In sound, there is no periphery, and similarly, a drop of colour does not have a periphery either, in terms of the visual experience.” - NATVAR BHAVSAR

Natvar Bhavsar’s visual language was deeply influenced by his early years in India, surrounded by vividly colourful textiles, rangoli and festivals. His artistic career was also shaped by his move to the US in the 1960s and the artistic movements that he encountered there. His striking and expressive use of colour, evident in the present lot, draws from these experiences. As explained by the artist, “You know I was born and color was placed on my palm, it’s traditional. So this tradition of being blessed with color in the palm might have helped me. I came to New York and I looked at Mark Rothko’s work, which was a major inspiration, but I noticed there was a fairly limited palette. They were quite saturated with the density of color. But when I expressed the rangoli, there were thousands of varied densities.” (Artist quoted in “The Metaphysics of Expression: A Conversation with Natvar Bhavsar,” South Asia Journal, 21 March 2012, online)

Bhavsar’s process involves dry pigments sifted onto the canvas, and his paintings “depend on a keen ability to sustain the complex maneuvering of pure mineral pigments. Every motion of the hand and arm is carefully intuited. His attention is perpetually focused on integrating the tactile, intellectual, and spiritual attributes that hover in the mysterious zone between art and life. Here Bhavsar proceeds to construct a magisterial terrain of fervent color, thus opening a visionary pathway into a burgeoning global awareness.” (Robert C Morgan, “Natvar Bhavsar’s Threshold of Purity,” Natvar Bhavsar: Five Decades, New York: Cara Gallery, 2015, p. 5)

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