Ratnakar Ojha an Indian Artist

Clips from the Press

".....When all is said and done, the artist has succeeded in making his viewers think about the human conditions........"

R.T. Shahani, The Sunday Free Press, Mumbai, October 8, 2000

"The shades prominently seen in his work are light blue, greens, mauves, pink, and yellows. The figures and faces are not realistic in the true sense but his lines succeed in expressing the emotion to the observer."

Jasmine Shah, The Asian Age, Mumbai, September 4, 1998

"They are mini wonders... bright and beautiful. They are all figurative works with simple compositions. They project a sense of joy and help build a festive atmosphere. Evidently, Ojha chooses to see the brighter side of things."

Arkay, The Afternoon, Mumbai, October 14, 1997

"His techniques is varied to suit his diverse expressions: one moment he uses swift brush work with water colour, while on the other, he touches his canvas with fleeting and feather-like moves in oil."

Sudipto Basu, Mid-Day, Mumbai, May 10, 1995

"Ratnakar Ojha of Orissa, comes out with slightly distorted, but stylised, extremely colourful faces of men and women. Very bright tones of red, blue and yellow along with black stresses glow form the canvas like stained glass."

L. V. The Hindu, Madras July16 1993

"Ojha has rendered his theme in fairly neat strokes. The overlap of human figures, the density produced thereof and postures depicted in the plastic language, from an able link to this artist's pervious body of work. Formerly, Ojha had produced little toy-like figures which were again, unfussy and therefore, charming. The present Train series also accounts for figuration in a different (more representational) sense."

Anahite Contractor, The Sunday Observer July 14-20,1991

"Ojha has a pleasing palette and he essays a degree of distortion that is just right. In the current show he presents a number of small canvases with female faces. Due to their diminutive size these paintings attain a characteristic charm of their own.."

Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni, The Independent, Mumbai, January 25, 1991

"Ojha's canvas explodes with bright,cheerful colors and there is a welcome informality of approach in his portraits."

Rinki Bhattacharya, Indian Express, Mumbai, November22, 1989

"Prone to mannerist exaggeration, the forms suggest a primitive power, an impression strengthen by the passionate use of colour and brushwork-mauve, emerald and warm chocolate surge and rage around the Chinese figures. Forests are thrown up through impasto strokes, and set ablaze; the deployment of colour is heraldic, leaf green and viridian, communicating fertility and consummation, while shades of red imply warmth as well as ferocity and destruction."

Ranjit Hoskote, The Times of India, Mumbai, July 9, 1989

"Ratnakar Ojha's major concern seems to be to give the viewer a powerful and pleasurable chromatic sensation. The Oriya artist's oils in a rather small format create a spatial depth solely on the strength of resonant chromatic intensity."

Manasij Majumder, The Telegraph, Calcutta, April 1, 1989

Reaching for the attractive.....
"...... items on display are in oils and water colours, in mixed and pastel, all of them competently executed but with unmistakable touches of the decorative and the romantic."

Nissim Ezekiel, The Afternoon, Mumbai, September 13, 1985