Vasudha Thozhur

Vasudha Thozhur (born October 14, 1956 in Mysore ) is an Indian painter .

Life

Vasudha Thozhur was born on October 14, 1956 in the southern Indian city of Mysore . She completed her studies at the College of Arts and Crafts in Madras in 1979 with a diploma in painting, after which she acquired a post-diploma in painting at the Croydon School of Art and Design in Croydon , in the south of Greater London in 1982 . Between 1981 and 1997 she lived mostly in Madras (renamed Chennai in 1996), where she worked in the studios of the regional center of the Lalit Kala Akademi and in the Cholamandal Artists' Village . After a stay in Baroda (today Vadodara ) she now lives and works in Noida .

Thozhur is an Associate Professor of Art in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at Shiv Nadar University in Greater Noida .

Works by her have been shown at the Chicago Cultural Center (2007), the Kunstmuseum Bern (2007), the House of World Cultures in Berlin (2003) and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai (2007 and 2003) and in Queens Museum of Art in New York.

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In terms of painting technique, Thozhur uses both oil paints and watercolors, but she is also active in other art genres such as digital printing and video art .

In some paintings from the early 1990s there are symbols such as water, bridges and boats that indicate a transition. Some fully completed paintings that she created the mid-1990s, carrying the ironic title The Void ( The Void ). The artist explained that the title simply refers to the way she works: she starts with a blank canvas and then adds lines and colors.

In the series Secret Life , created in 2000/2001, the artist presents herself, exploring the limits of conventional self-portraits . In Secret Life from 2000 she is seated with a tiger at her feet, which in Indian myths is associated with the goddess Durga . In the middle section of the 2001 triptych Secret Life , an androgynous figure dressed in overalls stands on a chair and hangs up a painting. The chair is surrounded by a ring of fire. In the case of the figure, it is not clear whether the artist is represented or not.

In spring 2012 she showed photographs and videos that she had taken at wedding celebrations in the exhibition The Anatomy of Celebration in New Delhi . The range of motifs goes from wedding canopies and fireworks to simple plastic chairs.

The serious riots in 2002 in the West Indian state of Gujarat , especially in the city of Ahmedabad , were the subject of an art project, the results of which she presented in 2013 at the Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai under the title Beyond Pain: An Afterlife . Large-format paintings by Thozhur were shown, as well as works by six young women from Ahmedabad who had lost several relatives in the unrest and were traumatized as a result. They had not worked artistically before and now, under Thozhur's guidance, created images and video works that gave viewers an insight into their feelings. The project took place in cooperation with the aid organization Himmat and was funded by the Indian Foundation for the Arts (IFA).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Vasudha Thozhur profiles. In: www.saffronart.com. Retrieved November 17, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Profile: Vasudha Thozhur. In: art.snu.edu.in. Retrieved November 17, 2019 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Amrita Jhaveri: A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Indian Artists. India Book House, Mumbai 2005, ISBN 81-7508-423-5 , p. 168.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Vasudha Thozhur / Pop-up "Artist Profile". In: www.sakshigallery.com. Retrieved November 17, 2019 . 
5. ^ Prajakta Hebbar: Band, Baaja and Some Empty Chairs. In: indianexpress.com. April 10, 2012, accessed November 17, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Surekha Kadapa-Bose: Healing survivors of riot through art, Vasudha Thozhur style. In: www.theweekendleader.com. August 23, 2013, accessed November 17, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Amruta Lakhe: Picking Up The Pieces. In: indianexpress.com. July 15, 2013, accessed November 17, 2019 .