NYAB Event - Natvar Bhavsar “Energy of Color”

Natvar Bhavsar “Energy of Color”

FreedmanArt

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FreedmanArt presents “Energy of Color”, an exhibition of a selection of recent paintings by Natvar Bhavsar.

Natvar Bhavsar was born in Gujarat, India in 1934, and was trained there as an artist. He came to the United States to study art in 1962, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965.

Inspired by a variant of Abstract Expressionism known as Color-field Painting, Bhavsar soon achieved his originality by adopting the practice of scattering pure pigment on to the canvas coated with acrylic medium. This practice was inspired by memories of ‘Holi’, a joyous Indian spring festival.

Over the decades, Bhavsar has been creating all-over fields of variegated, fluid, or cloud-like color; continuums of color in which there are no recognizable subjects or discrete forms. Devoid of linear definition, color is all.

Distinguished author and art historian Irving Sandler states that although “Bhavsar has adopted a western style, he has continued to look to India for inspiration. Indeed, what Bhavsar has drawn from Indian life and culture, what he prizes in it, make his art distinctive and valuable. Bhavsar has a personal vision that both continues American Color-field Painting and embodies his Indian heritage.” Sandler concludes: “At a time when cultures, whether American or Indian, have become increasingly multicultural, intercultural, and global, Bhavsar’s painting assumes a particular relevance … Looking both East and West, his vision is transnational, pointing to the university of human experience.”
—Excerpted from Irving Sandler, Natvar Bhavsar: Painting and the Reality of Color (Craftsman House: Sydney, 1998).

[Image: Natvar Bhavsar “APSARAA VII” (2009) Painting on canvas with pure pigments and acrylic and oil mediums; 12 x 12 in.]