| "My art is more like
a researcher's project who uses quotes rather than an
essay,with each painting necessitating a bibliography,"
Jitish Kallat, while defining his art. His obsessive
use of the self image in his paintings as the main protagonist
makes his works autobiographical. The autobiography
addresses personal relations as well as the ones he
has with his ancestory, time, death .. He chooses a
method that is a very economical, nearly abstract ,
form of narrative. Images float around the protagonist,
like icons on a computer screen, creating a webwork.
The sources are "any visual material relevant to
me." Images of the print media are photocopied,
transferred on to the surface, hence 'real', as against
the painted which he considers fictional. The images
are like a picture puzzle, which the viewer has to decode
and conclude upon. The treatment of the picture plane
is like a battered wall, and refers to the duality in
his painting. The use of text, for titles, which are
very important to Jitish, infuse the paintings with
a sense of humour. An emblematic , which actually began
as a joke on his classmates while at the Sir J.J. School
of Art, is ironical for him. "It is like copyrighting
an artwork which itself has been appropriated from so
many histories, people, collaborations .." It acknowledges
an acceptance as well as his critique of the modernist
concept of authorship in which he revels.
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