Born in 1943, Ahmedabad, Amit Ambalal was a businessman, until he became a full-time painter in 1979. So taken in was he by his passion of becoming a renowned painter - his childhood dream - that he sold off his family owned business in 1977 to pursue this passion. Amit was a 57 at the time.
Says he, "My inspiration was my mother who learned art from Chhaganlal Jadav, the renowned painter of Gujarat. I remember spending my time working on paintings even in my school. In fact my aptitude for art was so appreciated that even when I drew during my math class, my math teacher appreciated the good work and told my parents of the work of art I had created." Ambalal was educated at a school founded and run by Leela Sarabhai.
But coming from a business family, art wasn't quite appreciated by all the members of his family and he was forced to pursue a formal education. Ambalal eventually graduated from the Ahmedabad University with a BA, B.Com. and LL.B. He soon joined his father's business and took over as the Managing Director. Even as the MD of a company, Ambalal saved his Sundays for the paint and easel and worked with his guru, Chhaganlal Jadav.
His work can basically be divided into two categories. One has a contemporary approach to tradition via the popular religious traditions. And the other is the historical Rajasthani Nathdwara devotional paintings he has been creating for the last 14 years now. Part of his work also revolves around human drama.
A prosperous society embedded in a destitute society is thus oft the focus of his work. His portraits of India are simple and a direct means of him coming to terms with the horror he sees around him. He has a unique ability of perceiving quirks and flaws in human behavior and making them part of his great pictorial scheme on canvas. Its often been noticed in his canvases that where his faces, body and gestures are devices of his irony, it's the color, design and texture that gives his paintings the light and easy mood.
Hypocrisy doesn't bother him, he prefers to splash it on canvas and mock the world thus. Says he, "I don't decide what to paint before hand, the initial idea may be from a newspaper photograph I have seen in the morning or an antique sculpture. Then as I am painting something starts to grow inside that canvas, and that takes on the final form on the canvas."
Be it historical or contemporary, his work is paired with the critical, irreverent humorist creating a satirical representation of the everyday and the divine, filled with eccentric human and animal protagonists.
A large part of Amit's work is in watercolors and this he explains by his fondness for the medium, says he, "Watercolors have a knack of telling you when the painting is complete, apart from its luminosity and transparency which is not seen in other mediums." Amit is known to work with pure colors and let them mingle on the paper rather than his color palette.
Ambalal's first solo exhibition was in Ahmedabad in 1980. Since then he has had several shows around India, and in several group exhibitions abroad. Even after a track record of over 40 solo and group shows, he still considers himself to be a student. "After a show is over, I feel I have something more to learn," he says.
(Profile by Saffronart)
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