Reconsidering established narratives and modes of engaging with genres is taken a step forward with Jyoti Bhatt's works on view at Subcontinent. As one of the bastions of Indian modern art, Bhatt’s works are not unfamiliar to most in the country—yet an entirely new dimension within his world has opened up in this new show A Painter with a Camera. These are probably the most unique set of the prolific artist’s works currently on display in the country: black-and-white photographic experiments made from the ‘60s through the ‘80s, presented in silver gelatin prints. They are testament to Bhatt’s spectrum of interests, revealing an exceptional architecture of variation within the practice of a very recognizable and celebrated artist.
These newly reproduced works of photographic manipulation and collages play with positive and negative space, tricking and soothing the eyes simultaneously. Reality is blended seamlessly with the absurd; surreal aesthetics are explored in a distinctly Indian vocabulary of motifs. The analog printing method has given the works a depth in terms of color and contrast that is shocking for eyes trained on digital screens. One might just feel the distribution and shades of black in more ways than the purely aesthetic, tracing the textures in a cross-sensory experience. Bhatt reveals a methodology that pushes the limits of rationality and sanity, creating a set of images from a mystical reality with just a touch of madness.
Jyoti Bhatt, Baroda, 1983. Silver gelatin print. 14 x 9.25 in.
© Jyoti Bhatt. Courtesy of Subcontinent, Mumbai.