The definitive feminine

Rodwittiya surrenders to the everyday female

Few artists have created a figure so strong (yet silent; resilient "" but not compliant) as Rekha Rodwittiya.

Her character (for want of another word), with its chameleon-like interchangeablity, is at once boldly drawn in the nude, or engaged in the work a woman would concern herself with on a daily basis "" cutting vegetables, sewing a piece of cloth, washing, ironing "" and is instantly recognisable.

"Home making, nurturing, rearing a family are the prerogatives of choice to a feminist agenda," insists Rodwittiya, who says these "celebrate the aspect of the resurrected spirit of the woman".

Who then is Rodwittiya? Why is she so concerned with the feminist perspective to the total rejection, almost, of her male counterparts?

Far away, in Baroda, Rodwittiya is disengagingly urbane, the avante-garde artist liberally sprinkling her conversation with phrases such as "darling" and "my love", a product of an art education that brings together Baroda and London.

Once, long ago, Rodwittiya was still a little naive, her pigtailed heroines were beginning to make an impact, when those who could spot talent were saying, "Grab her works", even as the "latent violence" of her work was transforming, according to Sakshi gallerist Geeta Mehra, "to tranquillity, equanimity".

"My preoccupation with gender politics dates back to as early as 1979," says Rodwittiya.

"The female protagonist has the shadow of the autobiographical in that as a woman I see myself umblically connected to the entire ancestry of womanhood; and so choose to be engaged with the spectrum of issues that umbrella the female existence. Culture, tradition, history and politics are the backdrop of references that become the overall tapestry to locating my enquiries and observations."

Born in Bangalore, Rodwittiya majored in London, and works and lives in Baroda "" and the influence of the Baroda School is part of her sensibility.

Yet, she's moved beyond its narrative form to an identity that explores the female psyche. The fussy details of her early work have been pared down to a sparseness that accentuates the subject almost brutally. "It's reflective of her honesty," says Mehra, "of her surroundings."

Mehra is indulgent of Rodwittiya's works because of the "strong relationship" they share, and because Sakshi deals exclusively with Rodwittiya's canvases. Yet, Mehra is dismissive of the notion of speculative investment in her works.

"I'm a purist, I believe in the intrinsic worth of an artist. The fact is, Rekha's are unique pieces so they will accrue in price "" that's an inherent given. She's an important artist. But there is no manipulation of her pricing, no speculative buying of her work."

A disciplined painter who roots herself daily in her studio, works simultaneoulsy on three or four paintings (annual output: 40 works), and on occasion works 36-hour shifts with a night's break for sleeping before returning to the cycle (which may continue for a period of up to four months), she is, confessedly, simultaneously "mother, teacher, counsellor, writer, partner and daughter".

"Cinema, literature, history, anthropology, philosophy and social sciences are territories that feed and nurture me as a painter," she says.

"Perhaps some of the art that triggers my passions are, paradoxically, completely different from my own stylistic modules of representation, but the fascination of such optical dialogues comes from entering into the imaginative territories of others, that becomes yet another landscape to negotiate and find placements of belonging within."

She can mirror horrors beyond gender politics, such as the post-Godhra show, Bye Bye Baby, on the loss of innocence.

"My attempt is to forge an optical dialogue, first with myself and then through the presentation of it, to a viewer. The success of whether the idea is received comes through time and the belief you yourself hold of it," she says. You cannot but help believe her.