Buffalo Art: Natvar Bhavsar: ‘Free Yourself’
Image above: Natvar Bhavsar (American, born India, 1934). REETVA, 1968. Painting on paper, dry pigment, acrylic medium on rag paper. 35 x 46 inches (89 x 117 cm). © 2026 Natvar Bhavsar / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy of the artist.
On view August 21, 2026 through April 4, 2027. Surveys fifty years of Natvar Bhavsar’s expressive color-field abstractions made from pure dry pigment, presented simultaneously with the University at Buffalo Art Galleries. Debuts the museum’s two new acquisitions, RITI-YAA (1969) and KE-RAA (1971).
Seymour H. Knox Building
“I have tried to convey how to free oneself, using color as a force to reach towards the beauty and generosity of the material that allows you unlimited expression.”
Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself surveys fifty years of the artist’s expressive abstractions, inviting viewers to meditate on the power of pure color. Simultaneously presented at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, the exhibitions respectively feature works on paper and monumental paintings spanning each decade of his career. This exhibition also celebrates the debut of the AKG’s two acquisitions by the artist RITI-YAA (1969) and KE-RAA (1971).
Bhavsar’s unique physical process centers on tiny particles of pure, dry pigment. He begins by soaking the entire canvas in a clear acrylic binder, then sifts or brushes pigment through handmade tools and fine mesh screens, building up to eighty sealed layers. Air currents, breath, and the rhythm of his body as he maneuvers around the surface help shape the final image—a carefully controlled dance that produces textured, smoky surfaces with subtle shifts in color and tone. As Bhavsar describes:
“When I enter my studio, everything disappears. It’s like I’ve entered another world. I experience Nirvana. It’s an incredible gift in which I disappear, the studio itself disappears, New York disappears.”
Examined up close, his dappled surfaces are palpable; from a distance, the color fields float and become atmospheric. Some paintings burst with energy, while others suggest a boundless continuum of color. Unlike other Abstract Expressionists, who approached the sublime through solemnity, Bhavsar’s path is ecstatic and celebratory and rooted in his Indian heritage. His work invokes Holi, the Hindu Spring festival in which revelers douse one another in powdered colors to celebrate the divine love of Radha and Krishna. Later works introducing curlicues draw on rangoli—decorative floor patterns of colored powder made during Diwali, the festival of light.
Bhavsar’s meditative practice results in an intensely personal experience that invites endless free association—whether you find yourself peering through a microscope, wandering a Holi celebration, or gazing from the Hubble telescope is left entirely to you.
Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself is organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the University at Buffalo Art Galleries. Its presentation in Buffalo is organized by Katie O’Hara, Assistant Curator, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and its presentation at the University at Buffalo Art Galleries is organized by Robert Scalise, Director, University at Buffalo Art Galleries.
