YOUNG CONNOISSEURS

Meet Rudritara Shroff, the 16-year-old who brought together revered names in Indian art to create artworks that aid neonatal growth

- NIDA NAEEM

Contemporary and modern art is often associated with conceptual vigour, and meant for adult viewing. But leading Indian artists like Jyoti Bhatt, Jogen Chowdhury, Anju Dodiya, Reena Kallat, and Sudarshan Shetty have found an audience in babies through an art book meant for infants. The brain behind Art For Baby is 16-year-old Rudritara Shroff, who commissioned 15 contemporary artists to create special greyscale artworks, which feature animals, plants, architecture, people, and abstract forms in black, white, and grey scales.

She says, “Newborns, with their vision attuned to high-contrast images, can benefit from artworks that cater to their initial perception, fostering their ability to recognise patterns and understand their environment, thereby promoting a healthier and more robust brain development.”

During the first three months of life, a baby’s eyesight is blurry and perception of the visual world is limited to black, white, and gray. The high-contrast artworks contained in Art for Baby are meant to serve as a means of play, creative engagement, and stimulation, while strengthening eye muscles and fostering neural connections. For example, N.S. Harsha’s artwork Boo represents peek-a-boo. Peek-a-boo is played with newborn babies as it stimulates the baby’s senses, encourages social developments, builds motor skills, and strengthens the vision. It also is a milestone for the baby as a baby first laughs at three months of age. This multisensory engagement is a stepping stone to more complex skills like pattern recognition, crucial for mathematics and language acquisition, and overall brain function.