A cheeky touch to ceramics

Jyotsna Bhatt's celebratory works in clay stand out as witty visual metaphors.

With the sad passing away of 80-year-old Jyotsna Bhatt in July, contemporary ceramic art in India lost a devoted and much-admired practitioner.

In a long and distinguished career, Bhatt remained prolific and highly committed to the medium of her choice. Her mostly small but evocative pieces of ceramic sculpture revealed a high degree of technical proficiency as well as ingenious craftsmanship. Exploiting the gentle flexibility and plasticity of clay, she fashioned a wide variety of pots, urns and bowls in diverse colours, contours and textures. Displaying a playful approach, she brought to life a fascinating world of smiling cats, crowing roosters and googly-eyed owls, among others. In her art, she preferred to embrace a language of simplicity and proficiency rather than the complex and the bombastic.

“Working in ceramics has always been a pleasure for me. I have always preferred to work in small formats. There is never any complex, philosophical concept or socio-political association intended behind my works. I really enjoy making visual forms that justify and bring out the uniqueness of the medium, which is clay. My focus has remained divided between utilitarian and sculptural forms.”

Away from the limelight

Notwithstanding her immense talent and abilities, Bhatt remained modest, unassuming and low profile all her life. “Jyotsna Bhatt is a prominent exponent of ceramic sculpture in this country,” distinguished artist, scholar and academic K G Subramanyan had observed. “But, shy and withdrawing by nature, she keeps away from the limelight and so is not as widely known as she deserves to be.”

Subramanyan was among those who admired the charm and liveliness of Bhatt’s creations. “Jyotsna’s work is invariably celebrative. It is taken up with the life around, pots of flowers, birds and beasts, their amusing forms and gestures. She doctors the look of each and comes up with delightful or witty visual metaphors…The forms and gestures are summary and concise; they never override the object qualities by becoming theatrical. This economy ensures them a lasting appeal, inciting the onlooker to view afresh this wonderful and curious world.”

Baroda to Brooklyn

Born on March 6, 1940 in Mandvi, Gujarat, Jyotsna Bhatt initially enrolled for a course at Mumbai’s Sir J J School of Art in 1957. But, after a year, she shifted to Baroda (now Vadodara). The move came after her uncle counselled her: ‘If you are serious about art, MSU (Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda) is the place to go.’

From the beginning, Bhatt was clear that she wanted to study and practice sculpture and nothing else. “I was always interested in three-dimensional objects. So, there was no confusion about the medium I wanted to pursue.” At MSU, she came under the tutelage of Prof Sankho Chaudhuri (1916-2006), one of the stalwarts of modern Indian sculpture. (His wife Ira Chaudhuri was also an accomplished ceramist; she taught and held charge of the Pottery section at MSU in 1963-64.)

It was in MSU that Jyotsna met Jyoti Bhatt whom she married in 1965. A student of the very first batch of fine arts at MSU, Jyoti Bhatt went on to win the Fulbright Scholarship and travelled to the United States. Jyotsna followed him after some time. It was during the American sojourn that she attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School to further her interest in ceramic art under eminent artist Jolyon Hofsted in 1965-66.

On her return from the United States, Bhatt joined her alma mater MSU in 1972 and began teaching ceramics. Her association with the institution continued for three decades. When she retired in 2002, she was the head of the Department of Ceramics. (Jyoti Bhatt, a master printmaker and graphic artist, also taught at MSU for more than three decades. He was awarded the Padma Shri by Government of India in 2019.)

Much-loved teacher

Jyotsna Bhatt’s passing away has come as a rude shock and great dismay to a whole generation of students she taught and mentored. “For those of us who were fortunate to be her students and later shared a bond of friendship with her, watching Jyotsna Bhatt work on the wheel was like seeing a magician conjure from the sleight of hand an unexpected phenomenon of visual delight,” wrote well-known artist Rekha Rodwittiya in a moving obituary. “A woman who lived her life by defining her belonging not by conventional means nor by extreme radical positions, but by renegotiating within a patriarchal world where she stood unquestionably equal to all.”

Vinod Daroz, a young and accomplished ceramist, confesses to being a novice before Bhatt took him under her wings. “As a teacher, Jyotsna madam was unique. She nurtured experimentation and kept no secrets. She wanted us to be thorough in all technical aspects; at the same time, she encouraged us to develop a personal style and approach to the medium.”

Vinod, who completed his Masters at MSU in 1999 and has had several solo shows and international residencies, explains Bhatt’s inimitable connect with clay. “She taught us to respect clay as if it was gold. Through her, we learnt how working with this unique material required enormous patience and strict discipline. Just observing Jyotsna madam at the wheel made us realise how studio practice could be demanding as well as rewarding. Madam always emphasised there was no end to the learning process; and one could discover something new at the kiln each day. She was my Guru, the best teacher I ever had.”

Vinod recalls how Bhatt remained active and committed to ceramic art even after her retirement from MSU. “She almost single-handedly but silently built up the reputation of Baroda as one of the important ceramic centres of the country. We have to be forever grateful to her for that.”