Atul Dodiya and a touch of Picasso

His cerebral artistry on canvas has few equals in India today, but there was a time when Atul Dodiya almost made up his mind to stop painting. His first real brush with the works of international masters while in Paris on a French government grant to train at the École des Beaux-Arts was as cathartic for his curious mind as it was depressing - just seeing all that had been done before made him doubt there was anything substantial he could offer. The phase lasted almost three years and by the end of it, he realised that it was not a question of being better than the legends, but learning from them. "Picasso was always my hero. I remember cutting a newspaper clipping about his death when I was just around 13-years-old. In Paris, I lived close to the Picasso Museum and I learnt more about his various phases and his evolution as an artist.

I was fascinated by his extreme creativity and the immense risks he took, whether it was in style or subject matter. His life is the greatest lesson for any artist who strives to be fearless and unbound by rules," an animated Dodiya told this diarist. His own later works broke free of any singular style and regularly contained references to Picasso and his other favourite, Matisse. Now we hear that Dodiya's acclaimed Lamentation (which is now part of Harsh Goenka's art collection) has been requested on loan by the Museum Picasso in Barcelona. It will be included in a global selection - curated by Dr Fitzgerald, Professor of Fine Art at Trinity College - depicting Picasso's influence on contemporary art. Dodiya is understandably over the moon and the significance of the development is not lost on Goenka. "The curator of the exhibition was very keen to have this work as it is one of Atul Dodiya's greatest works and has been inspired by the work of Picasso. I had no hesitation in agreeing," he smiled.