Prafulla Mohanti

Eastbourne, Towner Art Gallery, Prafulla Mohanti: My Village, My Life, 1 - 30 July 1978

"I looked forward to the festivals and ceremonies. They were full of colour and movement. The characters in the all-night plays intrigued me. The music and dancing inspired me to participate. I instinctively started to draw and paint on the walls and floors at religious festivals."

(P. Mohanti, My Village, My Life: A Portrait of an Indian Village, Praeger, New York, 1973, p. 14)

Born and raised in the small village of Nanpur in Odisha, Prafulla Mohanti attended the Sir J. J. School of Art and went on to pursue further study in the UK, where he enjoyed success as both an architect-planner and visual artist. Yet despite spending decades abroad, Mohanti has maintained a close relationship with the culture and traditions of rural India through his paintings, which are inextricably linked to his upbringing.

In works such as Untitled and Untitled (Abstract), Mohanti fills the canvas with brightly colored abstract forms that channel the spirituality he originally absorbed as a child in Nanpur. These early paintings, created during the first decade after Mohanti moved abroad, were both featured in Prafulla Mohanti: My Village, My Life, an important 1978 solo show that helped raise the artist’s stature in England.

"I was asked… to organize a travelling exhibition relating my paintings to the art and culture of my village… After a short preview at India House, the exhibition was opened at Eastbourne by the Indian High Commissioner. It was a success."

(P. Mohanti, Through Brown Eyes, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985, p. 192)