Untitled, Reverse Painting on Acrylic Sheet

One of the most distinguished printmakers of the country, for Vinod Ray Patel art was a means of self-expression, even self-indulgence. He did not subscribe to the view that ordinary people should either consider art important or take it seriously. No wonder while moving from Baroda to Delhi, he made a bonfire of his own work. Born in Vadodra in 1933, VR, as everyone knew Patel, was not academically inclined. His elder brother was a commercial designer.

After failing his matriculation four times, he joined Alembic Industries as a designer. In 1955, he enrolled as a student at the Baroda Faculty of fine Arts and studied under N. S. Bendre. In 1962, he became a teacher of painting at the same faculty and continued there until 1994. In 1996 he moved to Delhi. In an interview he had said, "I am not a born artist. I am a trained artist." I love black and white. In colour I can’t even think. I am interested in forms. My paintings don’t tell a story." He stopped doing oils because he did not have the patience to wait for hours for it to dry.

An impatient experimentalist, he dabbled into a variety of media—oil on canvas, acrylic on glass, dry pastels, lithography, silkscreen, etching, woodcut, linocut, etc. The body of VR’s work is extremely large. One of the most memorable group of works is a series of silkscreen prints that he did — black-on-black and black-on-white in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The lines are sharp and powerful without sentimentality, the images uncluttered.

A guiding force for his students and a mentor to many a struggling artist, VR was the quintessential teacher. Just before VR passed away last week, he had a hugely successful show in Vadodra where he caught up with fellow artists, students and friends. It was a fitting finale to a life lived well to the fullest. As KG Subramanayan’s write-up on him shows, there were many facets to the artist and the man. Incidentally, KG taught art history and art theory at Baroda while V.R was a student.

TRIBUTE
Big appetite for colour

Eminent artist and scholar K.G. Subramanyan on V. R.’s last exhibition

Vinod Ray Patel is an artist who lives up to his name; he seems to derive a lot of amusement from whatever he does. And he has the talent and technical facility to cover a large ground. He has a delightful sense of design. He has a sumptuous appetite for colour. He has a many-sided graphic ability that can give form to various shades of experience, ranging from the full-bloodedly sensual to the witty and the sarcastic.

While some of his linear statements are pure and austere; others are given weight and body by judicious tonal hatching, even a sense of drama. His paintings have diverse thematic foci. Some are near-abstracts that seem to portray an unspecific sensual encounter. Others are explicitly romantic with floating, cavorting near-ethereal figures. Then there are a variety of colourful jugalbandis, figures facing each other and holding emblematic flowers. Then there are one or two single, frontal icons. And a few informal figure groups that probably seek to poke fun or satirise the Capital’s political scene. I have known Vinod Ray for years and watched with pleasure his prodigious talent that gave him easy access to all categories of art practice, painting, illustration, print-making, and graphic design. In a sense Vinod Ray is marked out by talent for today’s art scene which is deeply affected by various visual dialects of communication arts. It should offer him ample opportunity to put to use his sense of wit and whimsy. And thereby amuse himself. And, to follow, amuse others.

HOME