Prafulla Mohanti
b.1936
Composition
Watercolour and bodycolour on paper
c.1962-4
Wakefield Council Permanent Art Collection (The Hepworth Wakefield)
Prafulla Mohanti was born in Odisha, India. His upbringing in the village of Nanpur, where art and daily life were intertwined through religious and social ceremonies, remains important to his work. After studying architecture in Mumbai, Mohanti came to Leeds in 1960 to study as a town planner. Here, he began painting in bright colours to counteract the greyness of his room and the city. At the same time, he taught yoga and classical dance to local communities.
In 1964, Mohanti was invited to participate in Modern Art in Yorkshire at Wakefield City Art Gallery, his first public exhibition. Wakefield Council’s purchases of Composition and Floral Theme around this time mark the first acquisitions of his work by a UK institution.
Composition utilises the motif of the circle which is deeply symbolic within Mohanti’s art. As a child, he learnt to draw circles in rice-paste while reciting the names of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar, the Hindu trinity responsible for the endless, inevitable cycle of creation and destruction.
