Ratnabali Kant - a cutting edge artist

Ratnabali Kant is a prominent name in contemporary Indian Art. She has been contributing her remarkable creations to the world of contemporary Indian art for last three decades. Ratnabali Kant introduced and developed performative visual art, Installation Performance in India, she initiated this art form by giving performances, lecture-demonstrations and exhibiting recorded videos of her performances in several art institutions, galleries and also for common people, which is a very important contribution in contemporary Indian art. Her efforts towards dematerialization and art activism have been recognized by other artists, as well as finds mentions in art schools.

A book on her Installation Performance of twenty years (1985-2005) titled Ephemeral Steps Enduring Imprints was published in May 2006 and a Video CD was also released in September 2007.

In Ratnabali's performances she supported and developed traditional concept of Indian aesthetics in connection with inter-relationship of Arts. In this form of presentation she explored the country's living traditions like rituals, rites, ceremonies, and festivals, etc., to convey issues related to contemporary life and times. Simultaneously in her sculptures, her rediscovery of the Indian tradition of relief sculptures provided possibilities which could be explored to build narratives of world we live in.

Ratnabali Kant graduated in fine arts in sculpture from Santiniketan, Visvabharati University (1977), Post graduated in creative sculpture with a dissertation on Zoomorphic motifs in Ancient Indian Sculpture from M.S.University, Baroda (1979) and did Doctoral Research, on Dynamic Elements in Ancient Greek Sculptures from Athens University, Greece (1983-86), on a Greek Government scholarship.

She had a close association with great gurus and legendary artist like Ramkinkar Baij, Somnath Hore, Shankho Chowdhary, K.G. Subramanyan and also with the dance gurus Uday Shankar in India and in Greece artist Yiannis Tcharukhis, theatre person Jules Dassin, film maker Nikos Koundouros and dance revivalist Dora Stratou.

Her works are permanently displayed in Vigyan Bhavan, HUDCO, the Garden of five senses in Delhi and in many private and gallery collections in India, Greece, U.K, Italy and France.