The Armory Show

curatorial note

Bhavsar has been exploring the sensual, emotional and intellectual resonance of colour since the early 1960s, successfully marrying the vivid colourful influences from his childhood in India and adulthood in the art-cultural capital of New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Arriving in the US in 1962, Bhavsar chose to stay on in the US for its opportunities, and while remaining rooted in his Indianness he was able to evolve in a manner that appealed to his creative as well as intellectual sensibility. Bhavsar points out that he has been served by two cultures, both of which he is grateful for: ‘I am a product in every sense of the excitement of Indian culture. But I see no separation in it from the culture I have inherited. At the same time, I do not accept the cultural supremacy of one over another in art practice.’

Influenced by the abstract expressionists and colour-field artists in 1960s New York, he has been able to develop a distinctive of abstraction that instinctively turns to his own native Gujarat for a reference. Bhavsar, whose works have been widely collected by museums as well as eminent collectors in America and the West, enjoy works on paintings using dry pigments and often, huge canvases. But these immense works remain intimate in terms of the viewing pleasure they open themselves to for viewers. He sifts powdered pigments on to canvas, allowing air currents and his own breath and body movements to determine where they fall, creating smoky, layered compositions.