Vastu Shilpa Foundation announces Professor Jyoti Bhatt as the recipient of the ‘Balkrishna Doshi: Guru Ratna Award 2024, recognising his exceptional contributions to visual arts and fine arts education. Vastu Shilpa Foundation was established in 1978 as a public charitable trust and conceived as a link between academia and architecture. The foundation’s work includes developing region-specific, environmentally appropriate design models, and fostering interdisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges. Since 2003, VSF has expanded its international reach through collaborative habitat design studios with European universities, enhancing global dialogue on architectural solutions. VSF has also played a crucial role in documenting and archiving the work of renowned architect Balkrishna Doshi, including a major retrospective exhibition held in New Delhi and Shanghai. The Balkrishna Doshi Archives was established in 2021. It aimed to preserve and make accessible Doshi’s large number of works, Over 10,000 digitised items have been stored in the archive, which is a big resource for future generations to learn and examine.

The popular modernist artist, Jyotinder Manshankar Bhatt, who is also known as Jyoti Bhatt and is widely known for his works—painting, printmaking, and also for his photographic documentation of rural Indian culture—was born on 12th March 1934 in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. In Maharaja Sayajirao University Baroda, he worked under N.S. Bendre and K.G. Subramanyam. He also received a scholarship to study at the Academia di Belle Arti in Naples in the early 1960s, then advanced printmaking studies at the Pratt Institute in New York, where he was influenced by abstract expressionism and cubism. Though, Bhatt’s early works reflected lively experimentation with cubism and pop art, his later works were deeply rooted in traditional art and design.

A founder member of the Baroda Group of Artists and Group 1890, Bhatt gained acclaim for his printmaking, which he considered central to his artistic practice. His assignment on Gujarati folk art in 1967 began an inspiring journey that inspired him to document Indian craft and design, evolving into his lifelong passion. He did the photographic documentation, which served as a significant step to understand and preserve traditional Indian arts and crafts.

Bhatt’s achievements include the Lalit Kala Akademi National Award (1963-64), a gold medal at the International Print Biennale in Florence (1967), a first prize for designing a postal stamp for India’s 25th Independence Anniversary (1972), and the Padma Shri (2019). His work has been featured in eminent collections worldwide, including MOMA, the Smithsonian Museum, the Uffizi Gallery, and the British Museum.

Bhatt currently residing in Vadodara, continued his journey of exploring and incorporating conservational and native texts and rural motifs in his art, deeply engaging with India’s traditional and rural aesthetics. His dedication as a printmaker, painter, educator, and photographer highlights a lifelong pursuit of artistic and cultural preservation. He was also awarded with Padma Shri in 2019.