Osian's Auction Catalogue Select Masterpieces of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | June 2009

45 16 Atul Dodiya (b.1959) Destination Oil & bee’s wax on canvas, 1984 S/d in English ‘ATUL 84’ on verso 50.2 x 59.4 in (127.5 x 152.1 cm) INR 2,400,000 – 3,000,000 USD 50,000 – 62,500 Inspired by American neo-Dadaist realist Jasper Johns ‘Targets’ and Pop & Commercial Art, the spiritual and the abstract as text and image both together became a distinct style of Atul Dodiya’s in the mid 80s. Torn posters, graffitti on the wall, advertisements, all added to his thought process. He created some four – five paintings with a focus on targets. On the similar line to Johns, this painting of Dodiya’s features a depiction of an actual target. A closer view reveals black holes on the surface of the canvas. The mind useful in its own way adjusts itself in different ways to anything. The concentric bands can be elaborated to figure distraction rather than focus. The compass used to create the optical bands ultimately ends up producing the image of the ‘target’. This is the only period where he (Atul) uses his first name to create a painterly statement right in the middle of the artwork with an emphasis on the letter ‘T’ in Devnāgari distinctly seperating it with the use of black colour.