Art Journal

Rajendra Patil
President, The Bombay Art Society
Founder and Managing Director, India Art Festival
Editor, Indian Contemporary Art Journal
Being an art writer first, I am tempted not to pen my biographical note in the third person to describe my take in the art world. A – Ancient Indian Culture, are few conceptually clashing academic degrees acquired from Pune and Mumbai universities helped me sail through my checkered career started in 1995 with a series of jobs and profession changeovers before reaching equilibrium with visual arts in 2008, thanks to my brush with 100+ ‘artists in the making’ during my hostel days itself in Mumbai while doing engineering! Along with decently paid job in the engineering sector, I started the parallel career as an art writer in 1995 visiting art galleries uninvited like most other art writers would have done. I wrote art reviews extensively on art exhibitions in English and Marathi published through various weekly columns in different newspapers and magazines from 1995 till 2008. This is where I came close to thousands of artists who exhibited at Jehangir Art Gallery and other private galleries in Mumbai. I have had an opportunity to edit Bombay Art Society’s Art Journal from 2004 till 2008 and have one-to-one interviews with more than 300 artists including masters, mid-career, and emerging ones. I am fortunate to have received guiding lessons by the great souls, art scholars like Late Prafulla Dahanukar and Dr Saryu Doshi while working with them on the management committees of The Bombay Art Society and Artists’ Centre, the oldest art institutions in the Asian sub-continent. It was in 2008 I decided to leave well-paid job in biggest public sector undertaking and take a full plunge in the art world; I started quarterly art magazine ‘Indian Contemporary Art Journal’ in 2008 which many called crazy decision as the great recession around the world was looming large by then. During the time, I was closely associated with the Bombay Art Society (BAS –founded in 1888); BAS used to organise big annual art exhibition in the entire Jehangir Art Gallery and used to receive 2000+ entries from artists from all over India; it is an oldest annual art show happening since 1888. The idea of India Art Festival too germinated in the office of Bombay Art Society at Jehangir art gallery in 2010 when Late Prafulla Dahanukar was the president of BAS and Dr Saryu Doshi was Vice-President. It was Prafulla Dahanukar who encouraged me to take initiative and plan a bigger exhibition in Mumbai that will be the open platform for all. Early exposure to visual arts, understanding Indian art scene through grassroots level associations and deep insights culled from umpteenth discussions with thousands of unknown, lesser known, mid-career, and renowned artists, writers and gallerists friends in twenty five years of my career, as a writer and then cultural organiser, helped me initiate, nurture and position India Art Festival, as it stands today – 17 editions in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and one edition at Seoul, South Korea.