Marcel Dzama does not like to kiss and tell. The renowned artist who hails from Winnipeg, Canada and lives and works out of New York City, has fans in high places. Brad Pitt, for one, has bought some of his artwork. Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage and film director Gus Van Sant too invested early, right after a solo show at LA’s Richard Heller Gallery put Dzama on the map. While he’s unwilling to let on who his newest high-profile fan is – he apologises – it’s some consolation that he will be here, in person, painting a wall of the David Zwirner booth at India Art Fair, New Delhi next week.
Dzama rose to prominence in the 1990s, marked out by his distinctive visual language and predilection for world-building, mostly in watercolours. Influenced as much by folk vernacular as by surrealism and, of course, Dadaism (he is a lifelong fan of “troublemaker” Marcel Duchamp), Dzama creates intricate figurative drawings in which masked humans, anthropomorphic beings, bats, bears, caped superheroes, cartoon characters all stalk the topography, often recurring through shows and phases. At first glance, these works might look like something out of a book of children’s fairy tales, but look closer: They’re stunning and grotesque, enigmatic and accessible, violent and facetious at once.
Dzama has never been restricted to paper, instead also creating dioramas, sculptures, even movies. He’s also done album covers for the likes of American singer-songwriter Beck. His show at the India Art Fair will include 15 works, some of which were created specifically for India. There will also be a screening of a film he made in 2013, Une Danse des Bouffons (it’s about Duchamp, of course), along with the WIP mural project.
“I want to be spontaneous and try to be influenced by my surroundings and new experiences.” Dzama writes us over email, “but I’m sure a few of my characters that I’ve been drawing over the years may appear, the page cut and haircut women perhaps, or maybe bats or owls, a three-eyed goddess most likely, some polkadot and perhaps a reference to Duchamp or Picabia.”
“I usually work with liquid acrylic paint and it goes on nicely to a wall,” he continues. “I did one with my father last year and I’ve done a couple with [friend and frequent collaborator] Raymond Pettibon. They’re a lot of fun, usually a bit messy. The higher up it goes, the less crowded it gets; because it’s quite hard to reach up high and draw something worthwhile unless you have a good strong ladder.”
A dance can be taken as a Manifesto features a Bollywood dancer. Could you describe your first encounter with our song-and-dance routines?
I saw that drawing as some sort of apocalyptic Bollywood film where a goddess comes from the sky to bring justice to the world and her followers are celebrating. I don’t remember the first Bollywood film I saw, but I remember seeing an old 60s film, Gumnaam. It was later used in some scenes in a film called Ghost World, an American film that stars Scarlett Johansson. That was exciting to see because it was such a great film and had such a brilliant soundtrack. I love dance and choreography, so Bollywood won me over instantly.
Have you been to India before this?
For the jump, I really wish I was able to visit India before I made this work. I’ve always wanted to travel to India. I’m sure it would’ve been very inspiring, but most of the work for the show was influenced by early Indian films that I'd seen while living in Winnipeg. There is a large Indian population there; there were many Indian video stores back in the 90s. I loved the Bollywood films, they had such great choreography and music. The ones I remember most usually had a soundtrack by Mohammed Rafi or Kishore Kumar. I also had a few lobby cards and an old book of movie posters from Bollywood films. That also influenced this new work.