Bharti
Kher

Bharti
Kher

Indian, born in 1969


Famous for her highly personal use in her paintings of the bindi, the coloured dot that women wear in India, Bharti Kher creates spectacular works that explore bodies, identities and cultures in a world straddling tradition and modernity.

A key figure on the Indian and global art scenes born in 1969 in London, Bharti Kher studied in Newcastle before travelling to India, where she now works near New Delhi. From painting to sculpture, she plays with beliefs and draws on fantasy and traditional mythology to give shape to a bestiary that combines deer, elephants and hybrid women, always using a deeply committed feminist vocabulary. Bharti Kher, who says that "to see art and to make it, you must not be human", explores the themes of seduction, beauty, strangeness and borders in a sort of poetic alchemy.

Her works in the Pinault Collection could be seen during the “Qui a peur des artistes ?” ("Who’s Afraid of Artists?") show at the Palais des Arts in Dinard in 2009.
Bharti Kher's artwork