yatra· my JOurney Born on March 12, 1934, in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. Jyoti M Bhatt belongs to the first batch of students at the renowned Faculty of Fine To make a statement now about what was on my mind or what I wanted to Arts, established in 1958 as part of the M S University of Baroda express when my prints were made, way back during the sixties and seventies seems like connivance or a pretentious interpretation of my During his study in Post-Diploma in Painting, he got a chance to work under stalwarts like Prof. N.S.Bendre, K.G.Subramanyan and Sankho Chaudhuri. He assisted them in prints, based mainly on my after-thoughts. So I would try as much as I can , their mural assignments, which in turn introduced him to 'Mural Painting'. His desire to to refrain from doing that and also stop myself from giving any intricate discover more in mural painting took him to Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan in 1953 to technical details which are not really essential for the viewers to know. study Mural and Fresco painting. This new skill got him commissions to do murals for Instead, I would try to provide the factual information relevant to certain the Parliament House, New Delhi and locally at Jyoti Ltd., Alembic Chemicals, IPCL " What, Where, When and Why" kind of questions that people interested and the Zoological Department of the M.S. University. in my work have often asked. The other fortification of his skills took place at Academia di Belle Arti, Naples (Italy). I learnt the basics of wood-cut and lithography - two of the four common where he studied painting and etching with a scholarship from the government of Italy. print-making methods, during my initial training as a student of painting. Till He later studied printmaking at the Pratt Institute, New York, under the Fulbright and 1961 , I employed only these two methods, for the few prints that I made JDR-3rd scholarships. then. After completion of my study at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda He has held twenty solo exhibitions of his Paintings Graphic Prints and Photographs in (from 1950 to '59) I taught painting in the same institution from 1959 to '92. India and six abroad. An overview of his graphic prints was held in Mumbai in 1998. And till 1969, I was fairly active as a painter. Apart from these accomplishments his works are in permanent collections at Museum of Modem Art-New York, National Gallery of Modem Art and Lalit Kala Akademi­ New Delhi, Chandigarh Museum, Hyderabad State Museum, Baroda Museum, Smithsonian Institute- Washington, Print Collection of Ufizzi Gallery-Fiorence (Italy). Roopankar Museum, Bharat Bhawan-Bhopal, lndira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts-New Delhi, Centre for Photography and National Centre for the performing Arts-Mumbai. He also held the position of Commissioner for the Indian section at the 3rd Indian International Triennale of Art in 1974, Exhibition of Indian Graphic Arts, Havana (Cuba) in 1982, Bharat Bhawan International Print Biennale of Graphic Arts, Florence (Italy). He was on the panel of International Jury for the 3rd Bharat Bhawan Bienniale of Graphic Prints in 1995. A list of his awards include President's Golden Plaque in 1957, National Award-1963, Gold Medal at the 3rd International Biennale of Graphic Arts-Fiorence, a prize at World Photo Contest-W. Germany in 1978, 'Children of India', Photo Show-New Delhi in 1978, Grand Prix at Asian Cultural Centre for UNESCO Photo Contest-1993, Senior Fellowship from Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Gaurav Puraskar in 1996, Gujarat State Kala Academy Award in 1998, Gujarat State Award-2000 and 'Kalashree' -200 I . He retired as a professor of painting from the M. S. University. He presently lives and works in Baroda . This exhibition of his graphic prints from the year 1958 to 2000, at the Bayer ABS Gallery, is his first major solo exhibition in the city of Baroda. A Blue Fly Mixed intaglio, 1972 During the late fifties I had an opportunity to see the multi-coloured intaglio prints made by Krishna Reddy who was living in Paris and working at 'Atelier-17'. His prints made with the technique that he and his colleague Motiwala- another Indian artist at 'Atelier-17' had developed, fascinated me. These two were the only artists of Indian origin, whose contribution in the 'Art World', especially in the field of print-making was recognized internationally. Their method requires successive application of different coloured inks of varied viscosity, on the same plate before its printing. As I could not manage to learn it in India, I hoped to learn it at Naples, where I worked under the Italian government scholarship, ( 1961- 62). I made my first few monochrome etchings and Colla-graphic prints there- at 'Academia di Belle Arti'. I was surprised and also disappointed that no one at the Academia knew about the Viscosity method. Before returning to India, I got a chance to go to Paris and meet Krishna Reddy. But in spite of his willingness to help me, I could not manage to stay there and study this process as his disciple. Then, two years later I got a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Pratt Institute, New York. it was there that I got the craved opportunity of learning Intaglio, and concentrated on it during the two years of my stay in the US. Most of my prints made there were formally and thematically similar to my earlier paintings. This was natural and perhaps inevitable too. (Way back, probably in 195 7 I '58, while reviewing the National Exhibition of Arts, Ram Kumar-one of our foremost painters and a well-known Hindi writer had already made a mention of the graphic quality in my paintings.) Gradually, my prints became more and more linear- influence of an etching needle perhaps and the prints in turn, seem to have affected the paintings that I made since then. Apart from this, I have also 'collaged' the pieces from my prints in some of my paintings. Metaphysical Landscape Mixed intaglio, 1964/68 Forgotte n Monument. Mixed intaglio, 1964/68 Devi Mixed intaglio, 1971 I had learnt the basics of auto-graphic (hand drawn) screen printing at Pratt, but wanted to learn the photographic process used for making a screen. A relative of mine at Mumbai had a small factory where he manufactured gift articles and screen­ printed the names and logos of his clients on those. So, in 1972, I worked there during the summer vacation to learn the photographic method he used for Screen-Printing or Serigraphy, the term preferred by the 'artist-printmakers'. Subsequently my colleagues and I worked with this newly learnt process at Baroda and eventually that too became a part of the curriculum of the Graphic Art Department. By then, I had acquired some experience in handling a camera and got a few opportunities of photographing the rich visual art forms found at Red is the Colour of Desire. Mixed intaglio, 1972 some tribal and rural regions in Gujarat. While doing this I realized the urgency of proper and extensive visual documentation of such forms and the related cultural traditions before they lt was Krishna Reddy's viscosity method that India. But, due to my personal limitations and deteriorated; if not vanished and forgotten. had initially motivated me to learn print­ lack of initiative I could not do that and had to So, I shifted my focus on using a camera in the place making. But when I got the opportunity to resume my teaching duties in the department of an etching needle. And, spent most of the time I pursue it at the Pratt Institute and at Pratt of painting, at M. S. University. However, I could avail from my teaching duties at the M. S. U. Graphic Arts Center, I did not even try my was always happy to participate whole­ in traveling to various regions in India and hand at that technique. Instead, I tried to heartedly, with my artist friends, namely, concentrated on photographing the traditional art develop and pursue the method of multi­ Jag Mohan Chopra, and Anupam Sud forms. colour printing that was more suitable to my (New Delhi), Vivan Sundaram, V S. Patel, own temperament and relevant to the limited Rini & P. D. Dhumal (Baroda) and Unlike my teachers and several of my artist friends, equipment, materials and resources that were J. Swaminathan (Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal), I have never been a prolific worker. I always available to us in India back then. (The whenever they came up with projects for worked very slowly and leisurely; rather Viscosity method requires a few large, heavy promoting awareness and activities related to lethargically. Apart from this, I also found it difficult and expensive rollers, gallons of chemicals and printmaking in India. to focus on a number of mediums simultaneously. also a vast working space. Preserving rubber So, after the shift in my focus, I could make very rollers in our very hot, dusty and humid During late 1966, a few artists, including few prints and, hardly any paintings. climate is equally difficult). Jeram Patel, Bhupen Khakhar, Vinod Ray Patel, P. D . Dhumal and myself, started working on Apart from learning various methods and Intaglio at the Faculty of Fine Arts during kinds of print-making, I was also impressed evening hours. We resurrected an old, with Pratt Graphic Art Center's earnest and imported etching press that has been lying Flies successful efforts for popularizing it. I started unused. Eventually, the Intaglio processes Mixed intaglio, 1971 dreaming of doing something similar and also were introduced to the teaching programme of teaching printmaking after returning to in the Graphic Department.