Devajyoti Ray

In the late 1990s, when Indian economy was liberalized, many of India’s young generation artists got international exposure and technology as an aid to art-practice became common. Most of the artists of new generation in India started using machines to create modern art-works. Devajyoti Ray during this time came as an antithesis to this trend.

Though Ray’s works with fine edges and flat colours often look like graphic works, each of his paintings is actually a carefully made hand-work. It is this finesse that has put Ray at the centre of Indian modern art.

In 2001, Ray started a new style called Pseudo-realism wherein regular scenes from Indian life were painted in a very vibrant colour scheme which do not conform to reality yet in the eyes of the viewer the visuals remain comprehendible and scenic.


The name Pseudo-realism is also significant because everything in Ray’s works look vibrant and yet the viewer often cannot ignore the pathos beneath. Thus through his works Ray comments on the plastic happiness that economic liberalization has brought into his country where the life of a common man at the very basic level continues to remain the same.

Ray has exhibited his works in many European countries and his works have been acquired by important art galleries and Museums in Asia and Europe.