Vinod Dave

The journey from Chital village in Gujarat to New York is a long and rather unusual one, especially for an artist.  Vinod Dave is the youngest child of an ayurvedic doctor who was less than enthusiastic about his son’s determination to become an artist.   Dr. Dave was acquainted with the hardships of that vocation (he new a traditional painter of religious icons, whose only payments seemed to come as gifts of food and grain), and urged his son to become a civil engineer.  For a few months young Vinod attended a science college in Rajkot.  But he persisted with his wish to study art and eventually his father reluctantly consented and provided some modest support for Vinod to study studio arts at Baroda’s Maharaja Sayajirao University.  Scholarships and teaching positions followed, first in India and then in the US.  Vinod Dave recently became a US citizen, and now pursues his vocation in the competitive and stimulating art world of New York City.  

Dave’s success has not come without struggle.  Although he continues to exhibit his work in India (and elsewhere in Asia and Europe), his greatest patronage remains in the US.  Collectors Chester and Davida Herwitz have acquired hundreds of his works, including three especially commissioned series on subjects of mutual interest.  One of these series features 25 large “Icons of Deities” inspired by various religious traditions “ mostly Hindu but also Jain, Buddhist, Muslim etc. “ but no Christian “icons” (Chester Herwitz emphatically objected to Dave’s inclusion of any Christian imagery “ a matter of earnest but respectful dispute between artist and patron) Vinod Dave’s work not only combines mediums; but also bridges global cultures, primarily of India and the West and interlinks the traditional and the contemporary. By interpreting popular images into personal statements, He has both paid homage to and also, like a typical Indian “quarreled with the Gods” by viewing them with contemporary sensibilitiy. He has always been fascinated by stories and images of legendary Hindu Gods and Goddesses and demons including their miracles, strange wars, incredible flights and multi-headed, multi-handed super physiques.

Ajay Sinha, author of Contemporary Art in Baroda, says “Vinod meets the ‘public’ dimension, the surface, of this culture with a rather complex technique of mixed-media.  He first makes a collage of journalistic photographs and prints which he connects with lines and patches of color.  He then re-photographs the whole and prints them into giant blow-ups, on which he again draws and paints with printing ink, acrylics, photo-colors, graphite and oil.  Thus, while the original photographic collage may still be a remnant of other contexts – of actual happenings “ this arbitrary multiplex now becomes the basic, iconic reference for the twice-removed final enlargement, in which Vinod gives form to the ultimate violence of sensibility.  More recently, he has recorded on this plane a battle of contemporary images and ancient mythical events, such as that of Krishna vanquishing the serpent demon Kaliya, or a goddess killing the buffalo demon..”

Vinod’s personal interpretations are not a revolt for a change. It is simply his paintings that heighten the tension between the dualities of existence: those of the superior and the inferior. His work is about the tension that connects to a sense of violence that can not be categorized; but it exists. And it exists between the powerful and the weak, the controller and the controlled, the privileged and the deprived, the unique and the commonplace.

There are no simple lessons to be learned from Dave’s pictures.  But his works do plead unequivocally for integrity and empathy.  Inner Vision of a Blind Brahmin and In Search of Sanjavani offer ways to identify oneself without denouncing another.  Within the cartoonish profile silhouette of the first piece, a statue of Swami Vivekananda glows with a light made gentle by devotion, humility, and self-deprecating humor.  The internal contradiction of the title ribs the artist about his own failing eyesight and acknowledges the possibility of error.  Perhaps Dave means to counsel us that being right is always less important than sharing fellow-feeling:  In Search of Sanjavani may seek an antidote to the fever of communal hatred and fear that consumed Ayodhya, Gujarat and so many places since.  To those who would worship Hanuman for being a loyal servant, Vinod Dave’s painting quietly proclaims it was his undaunted desire to heal that proved him a hero.

Vinod Dave lost his vision in his right eye in an accident in which, ironically, one of his own paintings hit his eye. As a result, Vinod sees with one eye only without perception of depth and spatial distance. This condition made him invent a different way of “seeing” that has lack of spatial depth.Therefore, his work uses graphic mark making (like letters, hard-edged lines and geometric shapes) juxtaposed with fluidly painted surfaces and forms to create “a feeling of spatial depth” with help of contrasting opposites as a substitute for the missing element.