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'''Navjot Altaf''', often referred to simply as “Navjot,” is an artist, currently based in [[Bastar district|Bastar]] and [[Mumbai]], India. Over the course of her four-decade career, Navjot has worked in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video, installation, mixed-media, and public art.<ref>Deepanjana Pal, “Going public,” ''Time Out Mumbai'', 2008.</ref> Navjot's art draws from an extensive knowledge of art history, as well as an understanding of the tribal craftsmanship of India, particularly of the [[Bastar division|Bastar region]].<ref>Sasha Altaf, “Navjot Altaf,” in ''Navjot Altaf: Lacuna in Testimony'', Frost Art Museum, 2009.</ref><ref> Holland Cotter, “Navjot Altaf,” ''The New York Times'', 2005.</ref> Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including at [[Tate Modern]] in London, the [[National Gallery of Modern Art]] in [[New Delhi]], at the XV [[Sydney Biennale]], in [[Sydney]], Australia and at the [[Talwar Gallery]] in New York City and New Delhi.

== Life and career ==
Born in [[Meerut]], India, in 1949, Navjot earned a degree in Fine and Applied Arts from [[Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art|Sir J.J. School of Art]] in Mumbai.<ref> “Navjot Altaf's Touch IV”, ''Art & Deal'', August 2012.</ref> While in school, she met artist Altaf and they married in 1972, travelling together extensively and sharing a studio over the course of the next three decades. Navjot continues to cite their relationship as a major part of her artistic growth.<ref>Maria Louis, “Navjot Altaf,” ''Verve'', 2008.</ref>

=== Activism ===
Both Navjot and her husband were members of the Progressive Youth Movement (PROYOM) in the 1970s, and liberal political ideology has continued to inform her creative process throughout her career.<ref>[[Nancy Adajania]], “Dialogues on representation,” ''The Hindu'', February 16, 2003.</ref> Much of Navjot's work attempts to question and expand the expected interaction between artist and viewer, creating a cooperative, dialectic conversation around the work of art.<ref>Frost Art Museum, ''Navjot Altaf: Lacuna in testimony'', 2009.</ref> In a bold challenge of the accepted delineation between “art” and “craft,” Navjot has collaborated with traditional craftspeople of India, particularly in the villages of [[Bastar district|Bastar]], in the creation of her sculptures and installations, and has worked to bring their work to exhibitions in Mumbai.<ref> Gitanjali Dang, “Bastar's myth and reality,” ''The Hindustan Times'', January 16, 2006.</ref> Her fascination with oral history, ritual, and communal creation has led to other cooperative projects; the 2010 work ''Touch IV'', for example, emerged from a collaboration between the artist and a group of sex workers, and created the space for a multivocal communication about the ideas of intimacy and desire.<ref>Natasha Baruah, “Touch IV – Navjot Altaf,” ''Artfair'', July 2010.</ref><ref>Jane Mikkelson, “Touching stories,” ''Time Out New Delhi'', May 2010.</ref> While she has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, Navjot consistently seeks audiences beyond traditional art spaces; she has organized art workshops for women and children in villages in Bastar, and she has worked to design alternative public spaces that allow young people to meet and engage with each other creatively.<ref> Nancy Adajania, “Dialogues on representation,” ''The Hindu'', February 16, 2003.</ref>

=== Feminism ===
In many ways, Navjot's engagement with women's issues springs from the same social activism that undergirds her collaborative projects. Much of her work positions traditional female crafts, such as weaving, within the context of contemporary high art, and in so doing it grants the craftswomen themselves a new level of personal and artistic agency.<ref>Holland Cotter, “Feminist Art Finally Takes Center Stage,” ''The New York Times'', January 29, 2007.</ref> Many of Navjot's sculptures also engage directly with the female body and its representation in Indian art, often both invoking and subverting the forms of traditional fertility figures or female divinities.<ref>“Stars of the ROM's Collections”, ''Magazine of the [[Royal Ontario Museum]]'', Summer 2008.</ref>

== Awards and Honours ==
* 1971: Bombay Art Society's Annual Art Exhibition award
* 1980 : Maharashtra State Art Exhibition award
* 1983: All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society award<ref>{{Cite web|last=|title=Gallery 7|url=https://www.gallery7.com/artists-work.php?id=MjAz|access-date=2021-03-20|website=Gallery7|language=en}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{official|http://www.navjotaltaf.com/}}
* [http://artpulsemagazine.com/navjot-altaf-lacuna-in-testimony Art Pulse, ''Navjot Altaf: Lacuna in Testimony''], 2010.
* [http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/art/features/sister-city Time Out Mumbai, ''Sister City''], February 18, 2010.
* [http://www.verveonline.com/60/life/artspeak.shtml Verve, ''The Intimacy of Sensation''], April, 2008.
* [http://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/books-magazine/rom-magazine/issue/summer-2008 Magazine of the Royal Ontario Museum, ''Stars of the ROM's Collections''], Summer 2008.
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/arts/design/29femi.html The New York Times, ''Feminist Art Finally Takes Center Stage''], January 29, 2007.
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E5DF1630F935A25751C1A9639C8B63 The New York Times, ''Navjot Altaf''], December 16, 2005.
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/04/arts/art-guide.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm&gwh=482B00AA5E200DC8E38C0E1216EC3F54 The New York Times, ''NAVJOT''], April 4, 2003.
* [https://archive.today/20140315071309/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2003/02/16/stories/2003021600030200.htm The Hindu, ''Dialogues on Representation''], February 16, 2003.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Altaf, Navjot}}
[[Category:1949 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women artists]]

Navjot Altaf - Revision history

>Scorpions13256: Undid revision 1030229695 by Scorpions13256 (talk)