NATVAR BHAVSAR Aikwa IV 2008, Acrylic and raw pigment on canvas

Poignant painting in a gorgeous blue by Indian born color field painter Natvar Bhavsar - often referred to as the “Indian Rothko.” 

About the Artist:

Bhavsar studied at the Seth CN College of Fine Arts in Ahmedabad and also graduated in English literature from Gujarat University. He attained prominence as an artist in India by the age of 19, working primarily in the Cubist vein. After moving to New York City, he became influenced by the freedom of abstract painting. Bhavsar earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design in 1965, and received a Rockefeller grant. His style evolved into abstract expressionism and color field painting, and his works often feature a hazy object in the center of a solid canvas, that projects an astral-like mass of color. Indeed, Bhavsar claims that colors are his medium, and he is influenced by his childhood memories of India—where he was surrounded by vivid textiles and practiced rangoli, in which colorful, complex patterns are created on the floor in living rooms or courtyards—and experiences as an adult in New York in the 1960s and 1970s, where he mingled with artists including Andy Warhol, Merce Cunningham, and fellow Abstract Expressionists such as Mark Rothko. Bhavsar’s technique in creating his paintings is to sift powdered pigments onto canvas, allowing air currents and his own breath and body movements to determine where they fall, creating smoky, layered compositions. “I think I have tried to convey how to free oneself,” he said. “Using color as a force to reach towards the beauty and generosity of the material that allows you unlimited expression”.

 SIGNATURE

Signed, dated and titled on the verso.

PROVENANCE

De-accessioned by a New York law firm.