Pulling the shutters on Nehru and Bhagat Singh

For painter Atul Dodiya, rolling down a shutter is all about opening up perspectives

For painter Atul Dodiya, rolling down a shutter is all about opening up perspectives

Artists, arguably, are the truest bravehearts. Not because they paint goddesses in the nude, but because they

Half heros: Atul Dodiya's works play up store names and the historical inspirations behind them

muster the courage to work with the most mundane subjects in the face of unseen risk and criticism.

Haven't we told you about artist who uses dung as a medium, and Yuriko Lochan who went nude for her portrait line? The next to hit the city is shop shutter art. And this time, the man behind the idea is veteran Atul Dodiya.

When Mumbai shut down
The solo show, Malevich Matters and Other Shutters, has 12 oil on canvas creations that have been painted over the last two years. What makes this collection remarkable is the use of roller shutters as a base to unravel several layers of wit and humour.

However, this is not the first time that Atul has played with shutters.

"The first time I painted shop shutters was in London, at the museum called Modern. I exhibited my work at their opening show 'Century Cities' where one of the cities was Mumbai,u00a0 since they were focusing on the last decades of the financial capital which was marred by violence, riots and bloodshed. Being a Mumbaikar, I had witnessed many curfews, when the entire city would come to a halt, the shops would close and everything would be locked.

So, I painted rolled-down shutters. There were also paintings where the shutters were partly lifted or half open."

Lifting 'em up
But Atul's current exhibition shows some positivity, with the shutters in this series half open. "When I started working on this series, I thought, why not show a relation between the fau00c3u00a7ade of the shutter and what lies behind it. So I decided I will keep the shutter half lifted.

"To lend it a historical relevance, I have painted Bhagat Singh and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It's like a collage of how shops are named, and how billboards add to the look of the shops. I haven't kept any city in mind, but since I belong to Mumbai, the shades of the city will obviously come to the fore," signs off the painter.