Informal Institutional Histories: Jyoti Bhatt’s Documentation of MSU Baroda

Formal histories of educational institutions are often carefully composed as rows of straight-backed students and faculty in class photographs, or prominently framed images of accolades and posed glory lined neatly on walls. Artist and educator Jyoti Bhatt’s personal archive contains extensive documentation from his time as a teacher at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda. Bhatt’s digitised photographs of the department from the late 1960s to early 1990s can be accessed on Asia Art Archive’s website. These photographs—most of which appear to be taken casually by him—capture the more quotidian histories of the arts department. They invert the ways in which we imagine institutional accounts by revealing the often-messy processes and preparations that are integral to learning at an art school.

The Faculty of Fine Arts was established in 1950, shortly after India gained independence, and it concerned itself with the future of art education for a new nation. In Bhatt’s photographs, we see the kinds of subjects that were taught as part of the modern curriculums—with more traditional departments like painting and sculpture, but also applied arts such as graphic design and photography. In his portrayals of students-at-work—both within and without the classroom—we see shared resources and joint experiments; walls of studios as spaces for visualising and brainstorming; photoshoots from play practice rather than final performances; as well as renowned artists (the likes of Nasreen Mohamedi) in roles that are not as highlighted in their individual career trajectories—teachers.

The department’s annual Fine Arts Fair—started in the early 1960s—is a highlight in the archive. The fair became a site of artistic experimentation for both the students and teachers. Images of the preparations as well as of the final installations clearly put forth the artisanal orientations of the faculty, where innovative approaches to craft histories and more traditional forms were intrinsic to their pedagogy. It was also an occasion where the department opened out to a wider public from the area. People were invited to experience a carnivalesque atmosphere with pop-up photo studios, theatre performances, puppet shows and culinary arts.

Bhatt’s photographs not only document the everyday lives of people at art school, but also the art works and objects that lined the university’s interiors as well as exteriors. These often have a surreal, animated quality in how they are rendered. The artist seems particularly fascinated by the sculptural debris that was left outdoors—sprouting roots and merging with the natural landscape, with histories that are much quieter, slower, and harder to remember.

To read more about other institutional histories, please click here and here.

All images by Jyoti Bhatt. Images courtesy of the Jyoti Bhatt Archive, Asia Art Archive.

Click on the image to view the album