Jyoti Bhatt (Profile)

Jyoti Bhatt (b. 1934, Gujarat, India)

About his work

“A painter-printmaker, photographer and committed pedagogue, Jyoti Bhatt’s interest in the folk arts and popular culture has had both anthropological and aesthetic values. His perception of tradition involves a comprehension of it in its historical sense in a contextual relationship with the past as well as the present. His compelling artistic oeuvre is one of ‘re-visioning’, the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text/image from a new critical direction. The plurality and eclectic spirit as evidenced in his work is effectual across two levels – the Indian/regional/ local triad, as well as the autonomy of creative practice. Bhatt’s prodigious canvas encapsulates the mediums of painting, print-making and photography, the imagery of each filtering into the other, fluid in content and style, in a marriage of mediums that challenge the constructed hierarchies in art…”

Extracted from Singh, Amrita Gupta. 2007. “Tradition and Innovation: The Past as Resource”. In Jyoti Bhatt: Parallels That Meet, edited by Roobina Karode, 24-49. New Delhi: Delhi Art Gallery.

Education

Studied at Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda till the completion of Post-Graduate Diploma in Painting under Professors N.S. Bendre, K.G. Subramanyan, and Sankho Chaudhuri; 1950-56
Studied Mural and Fresco painting at Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan; 1953
Studied painting and etching at Academia Di Belle Arti, at Naples, Italy, under the Italian Government Scholarship; 1959-1962
Studied printmaking at Pratt Institute and Pratt Graphic Art Center, New York, U.S.A. under Fulbright scholarship and J.D.R. III Grant; 1964-66

Solo Exhibitions (Selected & Recent)

The Indian Portrait XI; Photographs of Contemporaries; Amdavad Ni Gufa; 2020
Print show at Bihar Museum, Patna; 2019
RE- INCARNATIONS; ARK Gallery, Baroda; 2018
The Photographic Eye of Jyoti Bhatt; Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai & Galerie88-Kolkata; 2017
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal; 2013
Photographs from Rural India; Tasveer Arts; 2013-2019
Retrospective; Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi; 2007
Printed Image: retrospective exhibitions of Graphic Prints at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai (1998), ABS Gallery, Baroda (2002), and Anant Art, New Delhi, 2007

Selected Group Exhibitions

Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa; Curated by Nancy Adjania; 2019
In Conversation; Gallery Espace, New Delhi; 2001
Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai; 2017
Major Trends in Indian Art; Lalit Kala Akademi; 1998
Sao Paolo Triennial of Arts; 1969
International Biennial for Young Artists; Paris; 1959, 1961
Various Festival of India exhibitions held in the UK, U.S.A., U.S.S.R, Poland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan, 1954 onwards
Participated in National Exhibitions of Arts, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; 1954 onwards

Other Achievements

Commissioned to do two murals for the Parliament House, New Delhi; 1950-56
Founder member and secretary of Baroda Group of Artists, 1956 – 1966 and Founder member of ‘Group 1890’
Taught at the Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda; 1960s-1992
Photographic documentation of the Living Traditions of Folk and Tribal Visual Arts in India
Participated in various artists’ camps and workshops on printmaking, photography and painting, including the Smithsonian & U.S.I.S. Print workshop held at New Delhi.
Conducted several workshops on printmaking and photography
Did photo-documentation of works of Nandalal Bose, Benode Bihari Mukherjee and Ram Kinker Baij; 1980s
Recipient of several national and international awards, including National Award at the Annual Art Exhibitions of Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1963; Padmashri from Government of India, 2019; Kalidas Samman, Madhya Pradesh Government, 2017; Top prize, FOTOKINA World Photography Contest, Germany, 1978; Grand Prix, 13th Annual Photo contest for Asia and Pacific, UNESCO, Japan, 1989
Doctorate by Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, 2004
Has worked as a member of the jury committees, advisory committees, executive and selection committee for different organizations related to the Arts and various International, National and State level art exhibitions
Has published several books and catalogues including: Parallels That Meet, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2007; The Photographic Eye of Jyoti Bhatt, Guild Art Gallery, 2019; and The Indian Portrait XI, Archer Art Gallery, 2020

Collections

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC, USA
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
The British Museum, United Kingdom
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
Featured in several other noted personal, private, institutional and archival collections