Born in 1946 in Maharashtra and studied painting at the Sir J.J. School of Art, where he later taught between 1972 and 1994. His standing as a teacher is considerable, he continues to live and work in Bombay. Kolte demonstrates a rare commitment to the abstract and modernist idiom in the face of current trends and fashions. Kolte’s early work owed much to Paul Klee, in terms of motif and also in thinking, ‘Nature is not what you see, but what you don’t see; what you see is only the aftermath, for nature has already moved on hence the forms of nature’.

Kolte's work reflects the synthesis of abstraction and subjective expressiveness and could, therefore, be signified under the genre of abstract expressionism. The quest beyond form in the uncharted formless underlies his work.

Reflecting this mode of interfacing ideas Kolte's view remains multi-dimensional. As an artist he apprehends his environment with a deep and subtle extra-sensory perception that permeates his work. In his mind, space in itself has no dimension, no theme governing it. It just is.

Kolte provides trajectories for the viewer to transcend his or her personal objective world and enter these painterly abstractions by occasionally permitting the appearance of traceries of geometric shapes and fossil like imprints in his compositions. Chance windows are left ajar between drippings of colours. They constitute a hallmark of his work and provide the viewer with a fleeing glimpse of Kolte's creative idiom and vision.

Kolte’s works are a part of major private and corporate collections both in India and Overseas. His paintings are also in the permanent collection of several leading museums globally. His works appear regularly at Indian and International Auctions, where they do sell at prices far beyond the estimates due to Kolte’s international appeal.

Prabhakar Kolte is India’s leading abstractionist and is at the helm of Indian Contemporary Art.

Image: © Prabhakar Kolte, Gallery 7