Natvar Prahladji Bhavsar, MANGALAA, Water-based acrylic, water-based acrylic emulsion, acrylic copolymer resin liquid, linseed oil, and pure, dry pigments on canvas, 2013
Bio:
American, b. India 1934
Title:
MANGALAA
Date:
2013
Medium:
Water-based acrylic, water-based acrylic emulsion, acrylic copolymer resin liquid, linseed oil, and pure, dry pigments on canvas
Dimensions:
42 × 72 × 2 1/2 in. (106.7 × 182.9 × 6.4 cm)
Credit Line:
Gift of The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation
Accession Number:
2021-8

Not On View

Natvar Bhavsar arrived in New York City from his native Gujarat, India, in the mid-1960s and connected with Barnett Newman, who shared his interests in color theory. Bhavsar soon gained a national reputation and exhibited at venues including the Jewish Museum. Here he showed eight enormous paintings in the 1970 exhibition Beautiful Painting and Sculpture.

To create MANGALAA, Bhavsar applied raw pigment to the canvas, dropping it through special sieves and screens he developed himself. These powdered colors are encased by layers of acrylic polymer and held in suspension with linseed oil and resin. The resulting work is ethereal and airy despite its immense weight, accrued through careful layering of its materials.

Information may change as a result of ongoing research.

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