Jyoti Bhatt India’s indigenous modernist known for his photographs and intaglios turns 86 today. His show Manushya our Prakriti has just concluded at the epic Bihar Museum in Patna. Chief advisor to Nitish Kumar, the famed visionary Anjani Kumar Singh spent an hour looking at Bhatt’s intaglios and serigraphs that were loaned by four esteemed collectors.
Among 74 works in the exhibition three works stood out for treatment, for the beauty of translating the erotic in the feminine and for sanguine earthiness they were Flies, Remains of a Bungalow and Kalpavruksha.
Stenciled expressions
All three works reflect his love and reverence for the feminine as well as a lesson in lacing the beauty of erotica in a manner that is enchanting to the eye and not hurtful in any manner of thoughts and associations.
Flies 1972
This stenciled expression can be seen in Bhatt’s work entitled, ‘Flies ‘ (1972). In this mixed intaglio print, there are suggestions of copulating couples, child-birthing postures and other erotic forms in the background, and the ideation of insects stenciled on top of those images and other filler images in dual moss coloured monochromatics . The balanced harmony of the human figures, the etched straw yellow outlined in the moss green colour scheme, and forms and patterns along with the overall shape of the composition gives a touch of finesse and felicity to his opus.
Remains of an old Bungalow 1968
In many of his works, one can see inscribed visuals with parts and multiple images in a very ornate and deeply embellished manner. One instance of such a work of Bhatt is titled, Remains of an Old Bungalow is a mixed intaglio print from 1968, where the print is divided into parts vertically as well as horizontally-in an attractive manner we see outlined human faces, hands and even feet as if defining as well as delineating imagery in the form of a summary of memories. Equally enticing is the right bottom long part of a woman lying on the floor with a scorpion next to her curved contours. Treatment and delicious dalliance both invite our gaze to this magnificent intaglio and we think of fabular feminine tales as well as the narrative of legacies in the old bungalow that echoes with soulful desires.
Kalpavruksha
Bhatt’s most iconic print is his Kalpavruksha which embodies the principle of “Purush–Prakruti”. According to Bhatt he had made one small print — 5 x 5 inches — in the studio for students. It contained forms of a woman’s face, a mountain, sun and moon, snake and so on. He titled it Meru. The second plate, Purush-Prakruti, was 10 x 10 inches. Details are mesmeric here-he takes the metaphor of eyebrows to create a sublime portrait- he recalls that he must have been reading a poet describing a woman’s eyebrows as dhanushya (bow), because he created the dhanushya-shaped eyes five times and then compared that shape to the wings of parrots, leaves of trees and so on. The vertically arranged form would have reminded him of the mythical tree and so we see this replete in rhythms of the earth and erotic hints of child birthing.
Rural rhythms
Bhatt’s vast documentation of rural India brought him into the web exploring folk, tribal and rural arts-his stint in photography to document India’s indigenous tribes and arts in its villages brought him close to traditional art, culture and rituals. Traditions in rural rhythms led him into a journey of a lifetime.
The imagery drawn from the popular and from tribal and folk juxtaposed with artistic intervention developed over the years became his leitmotif. These symbols of religious, social and cultural importance became a tool to comment on the change and transformation in society. Soft sarcasm and soothing seductive satire aided his narratives. Identity and the hybridisation of the lived everyday idiom became his insignia. At the Bihar Museum in Patna, art lovers regaled over his contours, the expression emanating an enchanting journey of 60 years in printmaking. Happy Birthday Jyoti Bhai.
( Images: Jyoti Bhatt Studio)
