Bharti Kher facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bharti Kher
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| Born | 1969 (age 55–56) London, England
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| Education | Newcastle Polytechnic |
| Spouse(s) | Subodh Gupta |
Bharti Kher is a modern artist who creates amazing works. For almost 30 years, she has made paintings, sculptures, and art installations. Her art often explores the human body, its stories, and how things are. She gets ideas from many places and uses everyday objects in new and surprising ways. Kher's art seems to travel through time, using old ideas and surprising differences to make her visuals interesting.
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Early Life and Education
Bharti Kher was born in London, England, in 1969. She started her art studies at Middlesex Polytechnic in London from 1987 to 1988. After that, she went to Newcastle Polytechnic from 1988 to 1991. There, she earned a degree in Fine Art, focusing on painting. In 1993, she moved to India, where she still lives and works today.
Exploring Bharti Kher's Art
Bharti Kher's art often looks at how we see ourselves. She explores how our identity is shaped by our connections with people, animals, places, and everyday objects. She also uses different myths and the many feelings that a place or material can bring up. Through her art, she questions common ideas and social rules.
What is the Bindi in Kher's Art?
Kher is famous for using the bindi in her paintings and sculptures. A bindi is a dot worn on the forehead. It comes from an old Sanskrit word meaning "point" or "dot." In India, it is a symbol of a spiritual third eye.
Bindis were once made with natural colors. Now, they are often mass-produced and popular accessories. Kher uses bindis to create detailed, layered "paintings." These works show ideas like repetition, sacred traditions, and female identity. The bindi becomes a special language in her art. It connects to both Western and Indian art styles.
The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own
One of Kher's most well-known works is The Skin Speaks a language not its own (2006). This sculpture is a life-sized female elephant made from fiberglass. It is covered with many bindis. This artwork combines two important Indian symbols: the bindi and the elephant. The elephant is also a sacred animal in the Hindu religion. This sculpture is often seen as a symbol of India itself.
How Does Kher Show Transformation?
A key idea in Kher's art is transformation. She takes materials and gives them a new form. Her "Intermediaries" series is a great example. For this series, she collects brightly painted clay figures. These figures are traditionally displayed in South India during autumn festivals. Kher breaks them apart and then puts them back together. She creates amazing, imaginary creatures. These can be animal mixes or strange, unusual people. She takes apart old stories to create her own new legends.
How Does Kher Show Balance?
Kher's art also explores the idea of balance. She is inspired by old math and sacred shapes. She tries to find a "steady state" by putting together surprising elements. These works use everyday objects. They are strange and exciting forms. Yet, they are all held together in a delicate moment of unity.
What About Women and the Body?
Throughout her career, Kher has often focused on the human body. She explores her own body and the bodies of women around her. She uses many different art forms to do this. For example, her "Warrior series" includes works like Cloudwalker and The messenger. She also has "Sari portraits" where she drapes sculptures in saris covered in resin.
In these works, Kher mixes different ideas about gender. She sees the body as a place where ideas about gender, myths, and stories are built. A very important part of her work is casting. This is when she makes molds of people. She sees this as a very personal way to show the feelings of her subjects, not just their physical shape. Six Women (2013–2015) is a series of life-sized sculptures of sitting women. These were cast from real women in her New Delhi studio.
Bharti Kher uses many materials in her art. She creates paintings, sculptures, installations, and text. Her main material is often manufactured versions of the traditional Indian bindi. Kher often uses patterns in her paintings that she started in art school. She thinks about how we see human life today. Her art shows a love for human stories and feelings. Her sculptures and collages often mix different ideas, like race and gender.
Exhibitions and Collections
Bharti Kher's art has been shown in many places around the world.
Recent Solo Exhibitions
- The Body is a Place, Arnolfini, Bristol (2022-23)
- A Consummate Joy, Irish Museum of Modern Art (2020)
- The Unexpected Freedom of Chaos, Galerie Perrotin New York (2020)
- A Wonderful Anarchy, Hauser & Wirth Somerset (2019)
- Djinns, Things, Places, Galerie Perrotin Tokyo (2018)
- Chimeras, Centre Pasqu'Art Biel (2018)
- Dark Matter, Museum Frieder Burda Berlin (2017)
- This Breathing House, Freud Museum London (2016)
- The Laws of Reversed Effort, Galerie Perrotin, Paris (2016)
- Matter, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (2016)
- In Her Own Language, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery Perth (2016)
- Three decimal points. Of a minute of a second. Of a degree, Hauser & Wirth, Zürich (2014)
- Misdemeanours, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2014)
Recent Group Exhibitions
- In the Company of Artists, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2019)
- Desire: A revision from the 20th Century to the Digital Age, Irish Museum of Modern Art (2019)
- Surface Work, Victoria Miro, London (2018)
- Facing India, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2018)
- Like Life: Sculpture, Colour and the Body (1300-Now), The Metropolitan Museum, New York (2018)
Where Can You See Her Art?
Kher's artwork is part of important art collections. You can find her pieces at the Tate Modern in London, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Walker Art Center.
Images for kids
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An Absence Of Assignable Cause
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Hungry Dogs Eat Dirty Pudding, 2004
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Bharti Kher, Sans Titre
