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2021-03-17T11:31:57Z

Setting DEFAULTSORT key to Rodwittiya, Rekha using Hot Default Sort

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{{Short description|Indian artist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}{{Use Indian English|date=November 2020}}

'''Rekha Rodwittiya''' (born 31 October 1958<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Fernando|first=Benita|date=2018-11-09|title=Rodwittiya’s female gaze|url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/0fmDPmIvQ4EDBNoaZGAIlO/Rodwittiyas-female-gaze.html|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-24|website=[[Livemint]]|language=en}}</ref>) is a contemporary Indian artist associated with the [[Baroda Group|Baroda School]]. She is known for her [[allegorical]] and [[metaphoric]] [[narrative painting]]s depicted through the style of [[surrealism]] and [[magical realism]]. She conducts an art studio in [[Vadodara]] called The Collective Studio, jointly with her husband and artist [[Surendran Nair]].

== Biography ==
Rekha was born on 31 October 1958, in the city of [[Bangalore]], [[Karnataka]].<ref name=":0" /> She grew up for the most part in the city of Baroda (later renamed to Vadodara), where her family moved to in 1967.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Ayaz|first=Sheikh|date=2018-12-05|title=Rekha Rodwittiya: The Magical Realist|url=https://openthemagazine.com/art-culture/rekha-rodwittiya-the-magical-realist/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-23|website=[[Open (Indian magazine)|Open The Magazine]]|language=en-GB}}</ref> Rekha was the younger of two sisters and her parents were [[South India]] while she was looked after mostly by her mother as her father was an Indian air force pilot.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Milford-Lutzker|first=Mary-Ann|date=2002|title=Five Artists from India: Gogi Saroj Pal, Rekha Rodwittiya, Navjot, Anupam Sud, Rummana Hussain|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1358704|journal=[[Woman's Art Journal]]|volume=23|issue=2|pages=21–27|doi=10.2307/1358704|issn=0270-7993|via=[[JSTOR]]}}</ref>

She joined the [[fine arts]] academy of the [[Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda]] in 1976, at a time when the city of witnessing the emergence of a hipster culture and the rise of a number of pre-eminent contemporary artists such as [[Bhupen Khakhar]], [[Gulam Mohammed Sheikh]] and [[Jyoti Bhatt]]''.''<ref name=":1" /> In 1977, she married a friend from Thailand who was a foreign student at the university and had a child in the following year named Mithun.<ref name=":2" /> Rodwittiya states that the marriage occurred with the expressed permission of her parents, and that she was diagnosed with infertility issues and recommended to conceive as soon as possible if she were to have a child.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Sarma|first=Ramya|date=2014-06-14|title=Stories in paint|language=en-IN|work=[[The Hindu]]|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/stories-in-paint/article6111409.ece|url-status=live|access-date=2020-11-24|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> The marriage broke down while she was pregnant which led to divorce and her becoming a single mother while still in college.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

In 1981, she graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in painting and was enrolled in the [[Master of Arts]] programme for an year. Following her graduation, Rodwittiya also began working at a private studio run by Jyoti Bhatt.<ref name=":1" /> She began painting independently with a series of small imaginary portrait, and was soon recognised as a talent.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> In 1982, the [[British Council]] granted her a fellowship to complete her [[Master of Fine Arts]] in painting at the [[Royal College of Art]], [[London]], which she earned in 1984.<ref name=":2" /> Other than Bhatt, she was also mentored by the British artist [[Peter de Francia]] who was a professor at the Royal College and the Indian artist [[Nasreen Mohamedi]],<ref name=":1" /> who is considered as "India's greatest abstract artist" and was a faculty at the MS University of Baroda.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jumabhoy|first=Zehra|date=2013-02-01|title=Art {{!}} The line of control|url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/9rL8WWOanCRAf4GiI7sjBK/Art--The-line-of-control.html|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-24|website=[[Livemint]]|language=en}}</ref> During this period, her parents began to take care of her son which allowed her to continue her education.<ref name=":2" />

On returning to India, Rodwittiya received a teaching appointment at the MS University of Baroda but it not renewed due to her outspoken [[feminist]] views which were considered controversial. She also met the artist Surendran Nair during this time,<ref name=":2" /> who became a close friend of hers and eventually married her in 1985.<ref name=":3" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:Indian painters]]

Rekha Rodwittiya - Revision history

imported>AngryHarpy: Setting DEFAULTSORT key to Rodwittiya, Rekha using Hot Default Sort