Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself

Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself surveys fifty years of the artist’s expressive abstractions, inviting viewers to meditate on the power of pure color. Simultaneously presented at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, the exhibitions respectively feature works on paper and monumental paintings spanning each decade of his career. This exhibition also celebrates the debut of the AKG’s two acquisitions by the artist RITI-YAA (1969) and KE-RAA (1971).

Bhavsar’s unique physical process centers on tiny particles of pure, dry pigment. He begins by soaking the entire canvas in a clear acrylic binder, then sifts or brushes pigment through handmade tools and fine mesh screens, building up to eighty sealed layers. Air currents, breath, and the rhythm of his body as he maneuvers around the surface help shape the final image—a carefully controlled dance that produces textured, smoky surfaces with subtle shifts in color and tone. ​

Examined up close, his dappled surfaces are palpable; from a distance, the color fields float and become atmospheric. Some paintings burst with energy, while others suggest a boundless continuum of color. Unlike other Abstract Expressionists, who approached the sublime through solemnity, Bhavsar’s path is ecstatic and celebratory and rooted in his Indian heritage. His work invokes Holi, the Hindu Spring festival in which revelers douse one another in powdered colors to celebrate the divine love of Radha and Krishna. Later works introducing curlicues draw on rangoli—decorative floor patterns of colored powder made during Diwali, the festival of light.

Bhavsar's meditative practice results in an intensely personal experience that invites endless free association—whether you find yourself peering through a microscope, wandering a Holi celebration, or gazing from the Hubble telescope is left entirely to you.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website