The

series

The Indian Fine Art Sale

Edition 1

24 - 26 August 2020 The

series

50 ARTISTS 50 WORKS

24 - 26 August 2020

The Indian Fine Art Sale

FIXED-PRICE SALE For further information please contact us at [email protected] Ashish Anand CEO and Managing Director, DAG

FROM Ashish Anand’s Desk

I am delighted to share with you the first edition of our Gold Series sale e-catalogue—a platform that brings to you works of high quality with commensurate values. All works in this series are priced between Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh.

When we launched the Silver Series in May 2020 as our attempt to stay engaged with art-lovers no longer able to visit our galleries, we were unsure of the response. But the feedback we received was heartening, and it was backed by commensurate sales to prove that the art-loving fraternity supported the initiative and gave it a resounding thumbs-up. The Silver Series was modest in its ambition in terms of prices (between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 5 lakh) and its fourth edition will follow immediately after the first Gold Series sale. We have other plans in store that I will share with you as they develop. Meanwhile, the DAG Bespoke series for customised audiences has also been launched, which—as the name suggests—remains exclusive and, therefore, intended only for a small group or body of people, many of who may be first-time art buyers.

While price is an important indicator, and separator, between the Silver and Gold sales series, I must point out that it is not the only differentiator. It is our endeavour to enhance the art-lover’s experience with works from the same pool of masters, but with additional twists—whether size, medium, or selected for reasons of historicity or rarity. Different works by different artists fulfil our need for range and variety. They may also represent different periods in an artist’s journey and growth. Our team of advisors will be happy to share additional information with you to help you understand the quality and background research that helped us pick these works for this first edition of the Gold Series.

2 ABOUT DAG

Established in 1993, DAG is an art company that spans a gamut of verticals that includes museums, art galleries, exhibitions, publishing, archives, knowledge-based lineups, as well as programmes for the specially-abled and sight-impaired. With India’s largest inventory of art and archival material and a brisk acquisitions platform, it offers curators and writers a vast choice for the planning and execution of important, historic retrospectives and expositions that have taken place at its galleries in New Delhi, Mumbai and New York, as well as through collaborations with stellar institutions such as The Wallace Collection, London, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, The Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi, Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, and Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur.

Last year, India’s first public–private collaboration in the arts space began in January 2019 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating Drishyakala art museum in the precincts of Red Fort, New Delhi—a UNESCO world heritage monument—in which the Archaeological Survey of India has partnered with DAG. Drishyakala currently has four simultaneous exhibitions on display that include the first-ever comprehensive overview of India’s nine National Treasure artists, as well as the first viewing of the complete 144 works of the eighteenth-century aquatints of Thomas Daniell and William Daniell included in their iconic ‘Oriental Scenery’ collection. In January 2020, the Prime Minister inaugurated Ghare Baire: The World, the Home and Beyond, 18th to 20th Century Art in Bengal, a museum- exhibition at Old Currency Building, Kolkata, curated by DAG in collaboration with NGMA. Other museum projects are currently underway. DAG’s exhibitions and books have helped establish Indian art around the world, its repertoire spanning pre-modern art as well as modern masters. The collection includes works by India’s most celebrated artists, including Raja Ravi Varma, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, Rabindranath Tagore as well as his nephews Abanindranath and Gaganendranath, the Progressives F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, and modernists Avinash Chandra, Ram Kumar, G. R. Santosh, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Chittaprosad, Altaf—an extensive list including over a thousand painters and sculptors. Apart from being on view at its galleries and museums, DAG has been responsible for sharing their works with viewers at biennales such as Kochi-Muziris and Shanghai, as well as at international fairs such as Art Basel Hong Kong, Armory New York, Art Dubai, Masterpiece London and India Art Fair. Conferences, discussions and other programming has been part of these initiatives.

As an agile, flexible organisation, DAG has responded to the coronavirus pandemic by shifting its activities online, of which the Silver Series and Gold Series sales e-catalogues are an important step. Exhibitions and other programming too have migrated online—a universe DAG will continue to occupy once lockdowns ease, for the effortless opportunity it offers for seamless engagement between art, artists, viewers and art-lovers. As India’s most significant art organisation, its continued belief in the relevance and importance of Indian art as part of global art remains its guiding force.

3 HIGHLIGHTS of the Sale

Fixed-price sale of works valued between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh

First-come, first-served basis

Sale starts on 24th August and ends on 26th August 2020

Prices mentioned in this catalogue are excluding Goods & Services Tax (GST) and shipping charges outside NCR (India). Currently, applicable rate of GST on sale of artworks in India is 12%

Delivery of artworks will be made based on the free movement of goods being allowed in both locations of dispatch and delivery

For invoicing, payment, delivery and other terms, please refer to the Conditions to Buy on pages 60-62 of this catalogue

4 ARTIST INDEX

J. Sultan Ali Anonymous No: 06 | Page: 15 (Portraiture) No: 10 | Page: 19

K. H. Ara No: 23 | Page: 32

Altaf No: 47 | Page: 56

Prabhakar Barwe No: 34 | Page: 43 Amit Ambalal No: 49 | Page: 58

Jyoti Bhatt No: 42 | Page: 51

Amitava Bikash Bhattacharjee No: 38 | Page: 47 No: 15 | Page: 24

Anonymous (Early Bengal) No: 02 | Page: 11 Nikhil Biswas No: 50 | Page: 59

Nandalal Bose No: 25 | Page: 34

Anonymous (Kalighat Pat) No: 03 | Page: 12

5 Eric Bowen No: 28 | Page: 37 Shanti Dave No: 36 | Page: 45

Shobha Broota Rajendra Dhawan No: 30 | Page: 39 No: 39 | Page: 48

Sakti Burman No: 41 | Page: 50

M. V. Dhurandhar No: 11 | Page: 20 Avinash Chandra No: 09 | Page: 18

K. Laxma Goud No: 48 | Page: 57

Satish Gujral Jogen Chowdhury No: 35 | Page: 44 No: 14 | Page: 23

Sunil Das No: 08 | Page: 17 Zarina Hashmi No: 40 | Page: 49

K. K. Hebbar No: 21 | Page: 30 Prodosh Das Gupta No: 33 | Page: 42

6 M. F. Husain Laxman Pai No: 07 | Page: 16 No: 19 | Page: 28

George Keyt Gogi Saroj Pal No: 12 | Page: 21 No: 31 | Page: 40

Krishen Khanna No: 26 | Page: 35

K. S. Kulkarni Madhvi Parekh No: 05 | Page: 14 No: 37 | Page: 46

Ram Kumar No: 24 | Page: 33 Jeram Patel No: 27 | Page: 36

Rabin Mondal No: 20 | Page: 29

Ganesh Pyne No: 22 | Page: 31

S. Nandagopal Sohan Qadri No: 43 | Page: 52 No: 29 | Page: 38

7 Paritosh Sen A. A. Raiba No: 32 | Page: 41 No: 13 | Page: 22

F. N. Souza No: 18 | Page: 27

Anupam Sud No: 46 | Page: 55

S. H. Raza No: 17 | Page: 26 Ramgopal Vijaivargiya No: 44 | Page: 53 P. T. Reddy No: 01 | Page: 10

Rekha Rodwittiya No: 45 | Page: 54

Jamini Roy No: 04 | Page: 13

G. R. Santosh No: 16 | Page: 25

8 THE SALE

9 P.T.REDDY 1915-96 01

`12,00,000 | $16,000

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Raghuvansha II Oil on hardboard, 1961 27.7 x 37.0 in. / 70.4 x 94.0 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘P. T. Reddy / 30/8/61’ Verso Inscribed, titled and dated in English over etched drawing ‘Sl. No. 421 / RAGHUVANSHA II / 1961 / 97x74 / OIL. HB’ Provenance Acquired from the artist’s family, Hyderabad, 2012

P. T. Reddy’s Raghuvansha II recreates a famous moment from the ancient epic written by Kalidasa, which revolved around the lives of the different rulers of the Ikshvaku dynasty. The painting is taken from the second canto of the mahakavya and depicts Dilipa, an ancestor of Rama, trying to rescue the wish-fulfilling cow Nandini from the clutches of a lion. Dilipa and his wife Sudakshina were childless and had sought counsel from the sage Vasistha, who advised them to gain the favour of the cow. Reddy’s adaptability when it came to painting was his greatest achievement. His work could range from vivid landscapes to modernist interpretations of life in and around Hyderabad, from the abstract to—as in this case—the traditional, with medium and scale highlighting his intervention within the conventional.

10 ANONYMOUS (EARLY BENGAL) 02

`15,00,000 | $20,000

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Untitled (Krishna and Radha) Tempera on canvas, c. 1930s 12.7 x 10.7 in. / 32.3 x 27.2 cm. Provenance Private collector, New Delhi, 2019

Would the anonymous artists of the Early Bengal style have been better served if they had signed their names to their paintings? We may never know but their inevitable inclusion into narratives of pre-modern and modern art is helping us learn a little more about them. Variously, they have been described as artists from royal ateliers trained in painting miniatures, visiting artists seeking local patronage by painting in the indigenous manner, or those trained in art schools realising their fortunes might lie in more traditional modes. This exquisite painting extolls this hybrid style, combining the two- dimensionality of the miniature with the three-dimensionality that had come to pass in Bengal thanks to the arrival of colonial artists. Radha and Krishna’s jewelled forms and costumes are offset by a landscape that appears to have been painted by an acolyte under training of a senior artist.

11 ANONYMOUS (KALIGHAT PAT) 03

`7,50,000 | $10,000

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Untitled (Ganesha) Water colour on paper highlighted with silver pigment, c. late 19th century 17.0 x 10.5 in. / 43.2 x 26.7 cm. Registered work (non-exportable) Provenance Bonhams, London, 2006

That the anonymous artists of Kalighat pats came to be regarded as artists of some skill is thanks in part to the quality of their work. Though repetitive, and intended as inexpensive paintings for pilgrims in Calcutta to carry back to their homes, their borrowings from colonial artists and folk styles resulted in captivating images that soon caught the attention of the cognoscenti, more particularly English visitors, who also used them as ethnographic references for the many gods and goddesses who make up the sacred Hindu pantheon. While the use of colours and the posture of the subjects was ritualised to a large extent, there was still room for individual artists to rise beyond the expected to leave behind a work of extraordinary skill and charisma. This Ganesha painting with its radiating halo and chiaroscuroed shading is an example of that.

12 JAMINI ROY 1887-1972 04

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Untitled Tempera on cardboard 15.0 x 27.0 in. / 38.1 x 68.6 cm. Signed in Bengali (lower right) ‘Jamini Roy’ National Art Treasure (non-exportable artwork) Provenance Private collection, New York, 2017

In the able hands of Jamini Roy, modern Indian art found a new direction, connecting life and mythology to create a personal diction that had no match among his contemporaries. Trained in European naturalism, Roy’s shift to a folk-inspired pictorial idiom represented an alternative modern distinct from the dominant national trajectory of the time. That transformation was most visible in paintings representative of his signature style that extolled Krishna and other sacred figures as well as the local Santhals and their love of music and dance. Here, Krishna and the gopis are rendered in a simplified compositional format imbibed from modern European traditions along with the voluminous contours derived from the Kalighat pata-chitra tradition of Bengal. Its refinement in Roy’s hands is a masterclass in the iconicisation of modern Indian art.

13 K. S. KULKARNI 1916-1994 05

`10,00,000 | $13,333

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Untitled (Farmer Ploughing) Oil and acrylic on canvas 17.5 x 28.5 in. / 44.4 x 72.4 cm. Signed in English (lower left) ‘K S Kulkarni’ Provenance Collection of Mrs. and Mr. J. C. Penny Thence by descent Collection of the Guyer family Sotheby’s, New York, 2014

K. S. Kulkarni combined the decorative grace of classical Indian painting with the vitality of modernism so well exemplified in this composition that depicts a farmer ploughing his fields with the help of a pair of unmatched bulls. Painted during his early years when Kulkarni created a number of works on rural themes, paintings like these were the mainstay of artists in the years immediately following Independence, thus paying tribute to the country’s primarily agricultural economy and society. Kulkarni’s depiction of pastoral life in this painting draws in the viewer through the use of white on the bull that then guides the eye to the farmer’s shirt of the same colour, thereby uniting the two ends of the painting and holding it in balance. The rest of the painting is kept deliberately muted, save the red of the turban, with bold outlines bringing in the lyrical rhythm of movement.

14 J. SULTAN ALI 1920-90 06

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Hasamah Kanya Oil on canvas, 1985 37.0 x 33.0 in. / 94.0 x 83.8 cm. Signed in Hindi and signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘Ali / Sultan Ali / 85’ Verso Artist’s name, title, inscription and date in English ‘J. SULTAN ALI / “HASAMAH KANYA” / 94 x 84 cms / OIL ON CANVAS / 1985 / INDIA’ Provenance Private collection, Mumbai, 2015

J. Sultan Ali combined the mythologies of his native Gujarat, his alma-mater Madras, his wanderings in central India, and his practice in New Delhi, to create a refreshing vocabulary. Unlike his peers who embraced the world of modernism using a Western lens, he delighted in creating his own characters with personalities that he freely borrowed from local cultures. This gave his paintings a unifying Indian characteristic that he foregrounded through the use of calligraphy, or cave painting-like impressions, suggesting a continuum in the subcontinent’s past and history that had penetrated all the way to the present. His Hasamah Kanya, literally ‘mirthful maiden’, seems to be his own creation with evident borrowings from folk and tribal art. By investing these qualities in his work, he was able to imbue it with a timelessness beyond the limitations of the twentieth century.

15 M. F. HUSAIN 1913-2011 07

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That Obscure Object of Desire - 26 Water colour, ink and graphite on paper, 1982 20.0 x 14.5 in. / 50.8 x 36.8 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘Husain / 82’ and titled in English (lower left) ‘“That Obscure Object of Desire” – 26’ Provenance Private collection, London, 2015

An old man in love with a young woman who encourages but frustrates his romantic and sexual desires—M. F. Husain was enthralled by this Luis Bunuel film about love and lust and went on to paint a series of works on the theme. Conchita, the protagonist, claimed she would carry her virginity to her marital bed, but teased her ageing lover into believing she might acquiesce with his less honourable intentions. Ever a romantic, Husain found himself drawn to their complicated relationship with its frequent partings and coming togethers. This watercolour depicts the two preparing for an act of intimacy though their nude bodies appear to be on a course for collision. The man’s face could be a self-reference to Husain himself, establishing his role in the painting as an alter-ego.

16 SUNIL DAS 1939-2015 08

`6,00,000 | $8000

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Untitled Ink on paper, 1988 27.0 x 29.0 in. / 68.6 x 73.7 cm. Signed, dated and inscribed in English (lower left) ‘Sunil / 1988 / Kolkata’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, Kolkata, 2004 Distinguished collector, Mumbai, 2015

Given his sombre use of colours, this evocative painting in a joyous hue marks a rare departure in Sunil Das’s work during the 1980s and ’90s, in which liminal figures of women, nondescript forms and graffiti created an introspective mood. In this Untitled painting of a youthful woman’s slim back, Das seems to have rendered the work from, quite literally, rose-tinted glasses. The bent stance of the seated woman’s posture does not appear burdened by failure, guilt or the sorrows of the world. A flowering plant beside her, a butterfly flitting over her head—they add to the suggestion of a blossoming. The artist appears to have painted this work as a reflection of a joyous spirit, taking leave from ‘the suffering, the agony of the world soul’ for a brief while.

17 AVINASH CHANDRA 1931-91 09

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…Ragini Waterproof ink and marker on paper, 1968 21.5 x 61.5 in. / 54.6 x 156.2 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower left) ‘Avinash / 68’ Verso Label with artist’s name, inscription and title in English ‘CHANDRA, Avinash / Original Ink and Watercolour / … [indecipherable] Ragini” / 22x62’ Provenance Estate of the artist Osborne Samuel, London, 2014

Avinash Chandra’s metamorphosis from a painter of landscapes at the start of his career to painting ‘scapes’ of nude figures was gradual but no less dramatic for it. Chandra would travel to paint his landscapes plein-air. For his humanscapes, he used life models in his studio, and one senses the playfulness he attributed to his mapping of a woman’s body—sitting, standing, stretching—in full or in part. Works such as this panorama under discussion were instances of hedonistic wantonness, an idyllic, sensual world—from a wholly male perspective, it needs to be said—that Chandra revelled in. Composed of orgiastic lines and colours, this delightful painting walks the fine line that appears to roll out an array of temptations without straying into the minefield of misogyny.

18 ANONYMOUS (PORTRAITURE) 10

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Untitled (Portrait of a Maratha Gentleman) Oil on canvas pasted on board 24.2 x 20.0 in. / 61.5 x 50.8 cm. Verso Label with inscription in English ‘SECRETARY ROOM (Raja)’ Provenance Private collector, Bangalore, 2004

Physical likeness in portraiture in India preceded the arrival of photography by approximately a century, though the Mughal atelier had begun to emphasise its importance ever since the arrival, at court, of Sir Thomas Roe, who brought with him examples of art from England. European artists travelling to India picked up portrait commissions and soon it was all the rage to sit for one’s likeness. It was at the art schools in Bombay and Calcutta, set up in the mid-nineteenth century, that academic training in Western art, saw the arrival of the first flush of Indian artists who began to paint portraits. Their patrons were often members of the royal families and the business elite, but also local grandees and those who occupied high office—such as this formal portrait of a Maratha official emulating the manners and lifestyle of those he served.

19 M. V. DHURANDHAR 1867-1944 11

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Woman in Profile Oil on handmade paper, 1892 10.7 x 8.2 in. / 27.2 x 20.8 cm. Signed and dated by the artist’s daughter in English (lower right) ‘M.V.D / 1892’ Registered work (non-exportable) Provenance Sotheby’s, London, 1998 Bonhams, London, 2014

In Woman in Profile, made in his student days in 1892, M. V. Dhurandhar paints a young woman in a saree draped conventionally over her head. Rendered as a three-quarter profile, the figure is probably an acquaintance and not a posed model, although Sir J. J. School was one of few art schools in India to provide life models at the time. A picture of demure simplicity, the work is an early study by the artist of human physiognomy. It indicates the poise with which Dhurandhar evokes his sitter’s mood and his mastery over realism, which would develop, just a few years later, into his masterful painting, Do You Come Laxmi?, for which he won the Bombay Art Society’s gold medal. Dhurandhar made a career of painting subjects of Maharashtrian domesticity that found its culmination in his illustrations for Otto Rothfield’s 1920 book, Women of India.

20 GEORGE KEYT 1901-1993 12

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Untitled Oil on canvas, 1962 18.5 x 15.0 in. / 47.0 x 38.1 cm. Signed and dated in English (upper left) ‘G Keyt / 62’ Provenance Bukowskis, Stockholm, Sweden, 2008 Private collection, London, 2009

Likened by many to M. F. Husain in the importance he enjoyed as a pioneer of the modern art movement in Sri Lanka, George Keyt was, in turn, influenced by the Progressives and Indian modernists, many of whom he counted among his friends. He was equally influenced by Pablo Picasso and early cubist image-making, both of which had an impact on his own paintings. Senaka Senanayake says he was the perfect blend or synthesis of the East and the West, ‘using Western techniques and Eastern images in his work’. Most Keyt watchers commend his work from the 1950s and ’60s as his most powerful, based as it was on his experiments with a cubist-based subcontinental modernism. Using flat planes, bounding lines and warm colours, he gives us, here, a face rendered frontally and in profile—a trope that was popular with artists in that period including the Goa-based Laxman Pai.

21 A. A. RAIBA 1922-2016 13

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Untitled Oil on canvas pasted on board, 1958 10.7 x 9.5 in. / 27.2 x 24.1 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower centre) ‘Raiba / 58’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, Thane, Maharashtra, 2006

So varied was A. A. Raiba’s practice that it was difficult to pin him down to a particular style or movement over an eclectic career. Academically trained, he was educated in the miniature tradition, but chose to express himself using bold rather than fragile lines and brushwork. He also often used humour to lighten his visual vocabulary. In 1956, two years before this painting was made, Raiba won the Bombay Art Society’s gold medal, marking his proficiency as an artist of considerable merit. This portrait, composed almost entirely of a few strong lines, could be as much an ode to his sojourn in Kashmir, where he spent five years, before returning to Bombay where he lived in a neighbourhood of Konkani Muslims—the enveloped face in the nature of a tribute to women who are allowed few freedoms or choices in life.

22 JOGEN CHOWDHURY B. 1939 14

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Untitled Charcoal on paper, 1961 35.5 x 21.7 in. / 90.2 x 55.1 cm. Signed and dated in Bengali (upper left) ‘Jogen Chowdhury / 3/5/61’ Provenance Private collection, Mumbai, 2015

Having graduated from the Government Art School in Calcutta in 1960, Jogen Chowdhury’s first job was as an art teacher at a provincial school in Howrah, an unlikely place for him to have continued to practice his life studies using life models. Yet, this was something he did, living a dual existence till his departure for Paris in 1965, from where he returned a confident painter whose distinctive style would mark his departure from the academic excellence of works such as this. The drawing is indicative of Chowdhury’s artistic confidence with its loosely contoured lines tightly reining in the woman’s figure while smooth shading gives it a skin-like texture and allows the artist to play with light and shade. The distorted, corpulent figures of his later paintings began their journey hereafter marking his progress as an artist of national importance.

23 BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE 15 1940-2006

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Summer No. 1 Oil pastel on pastel sheet pasted on board, 1997 19.2 x 29.2 in. / 48.8 x 74.2 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower left) ‘Bikash / 97’ Verso Label with title, inscription, date and artist’s name in English ‘Title “- SUMMER “NO. 1” / Medium OIL PASTEL ON BOARD / Year of Execution 1997 / Size (cms) 76 cm x 51 cm / Artist: BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE’ Provenance Private collection, Mumbai, 2010

Bikash Bhattacharjee did not intend his art to be a placebo for the masses, something comforting; his work held up a mirror to us of exploitation and vulnerability—whether it was the city or its people—in the face of constant decline. Paralysed cities, haunted skylines, lost innocence, feral societies, Bhattacharjee’s works had a quality that was difficult to identify, but there was always a threatening air about it. You sensed the beginning of something ominous. The textural quality of this painting builds up a woman’s scarred back as she turns around to offer us a glimpse of a shadowed face rendered in the artist’s distinctive hyper-realistic style. Bhattacharjee did not waste his effort on sentimentality. As viewers, we are not asked to empathise with the brutalisation of the victim as much as asked to live with the consequences of our actions, or, inactions.

24 G. R. SANTOSH 1929-97 16

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Untitled (Early Tantric Period) Oil on canvas, 1969 17.7 x 17.7 in. / 45.0 x 45.0 cm. Provenance Acquired from the artist’s family, New Delhi, 2010

G. R. Santosh’s mystic experience in 1964 in Amarnath set him off on a course to study Kashmir Shaivism and Shiva-Shakti philosophy. In his early tantric period of which this painting is an example, Santosh perceived the cosmic world of tantra through a state of universal consciousness. Even a cursory knowledge of tantric symbols can lead to an understanding of the essence of Hindu thought at its deepest. In the centre of this painting is the beej or bindu, the dimensionless seed of all beginnings, which is the fruit of the divine union of Shiva and Shakti. Santosh’s tantric awareness enabled him to see colours as light and energy. Consequently, colour became a dominant and influencing factor in his work. This painting has a wonderful quality of luminosity, relying on pale gold, yellow, orange and an orb of red deepening to an inky black before emerging as blue—to depict the simultaneously calming and teeming effect of tantra.

25 S. H. RAZA 1922-2016 17

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Plantation Oil on hardboard, 1971 19.7 x 8.0 in. / 50.0 x 20.3 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘RAZA / 71’ Verso Signed, dated and titled in English ‘RAZA / 71 / Plantation’ Provenance Cornette de Saint CYR, Paris, 2013

The colours of Raza’s abstract landscapes came from a different palette than early oil paintings. They were the result of his journeys across India and spoke of an ancient civilisation where form had given way to a shared harmony that suggested a relationship almost exclusively of colours. Though his earliest memories, and nostalgia, placed him within the jungles of Madhya Pradesh, with the Narmada flowing through it, his travels and later memories placed nature—as in this painting—within a matric of ‘essential colours, forms and moods’, according to the artist. This was a time when gestural brushwork was essential to his paintings. Art writer Geeti Sen observed that his abstract paintings ‘signify more than is stated’, referring to them as ‘the inner face of truth’.

26 F. N. SOUZA 1924-2002 18

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Untitled Oil on magazine paper, 1962 9.2 x 12.0 in. / 23.4 x 30.5 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘Souza / 62’ Provenance Private collection, London, 2009

Deliberately eclectic, essentially expressionist: John Berger’s summation of F. N. Souza’s work at the height of his popularity in London pointed to the artist’s lack of hypocrisy in dealing with the seamier, cankerous side of life. He devoted the early 1960s to painting nudes, still-lifes and landscapes that have since found him a permanent spot as one of the most significant artists of the modern era—something he virtually created with the setting up of the Progressive Artists’ Group in 1947 in Bombay. This oil painting on magazine paper made at the time marks an aberration in the artist’s career—he started painting on magazine paper much later in New York—for being abstract, though a closer look might reveal aspects of a still-life that he then deliberately erased with patterns and lines hinting at his many interests while painting in the 1960s.

27 LAXMAN PAI B. 1926 19

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Mushroom Oil on canvas, 1970 26.0 x 18.0 in. / 66.0 x 45.7 cm. Signed in Hindi and signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘Laxman Pai / Laxman Pai / 70’ Verso Title, inscription, date and artist’s name in English ‘‘MUSHROOM’ / OIL / 1970 / by Laxman Pai’ Provenance Private collection, Mumbai, 2018

Laxman Pai did not allow political concerns to affect his work which remained largely celebratory—whether his figurative paintings or idyllic landscapes. But the creeping vocabulary of modernism allowed him to experiment with what he saw around him— which, at the start of the 1970s in Goa, would have been the stream of hippies winding its way from the West to the exotic East in search of shallow nirvana. They brought with them hallucinatory drugs—the subject of this painting—that led to the brain experiencing delusional, chimeric fantasies and seeing colours and forms outside one’s known awareness or existence. Pai’s painting of this state of mind and out-of-body- experience is phenomenal and can be likened to that other ‘mushroom’—an atomic explosion. That this painting could be a depiction of either is a tribute to its artist’s skill.

28 RABIN MONDAL 1929-2019 20

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Untitled Oil on canvas, c. late 1960s 32.7 x 39.0 in. / 83.1 x 99.1 cm. Signed in English (lower centre) ‘Rabin’ Verso Signed in English ‘Rabin Mondal’ Provenance Private collector, Calcutta, c. late 1960s Thence by descent Private collection, UK Bonhams, London, 2010

Rabin Mondal’s abstract works were never entirely formless, and often featured architectural structures, especially in the late 1960s when he did a series of similar paintings whose titles alluded to their conceptual representation in the form of a church. The Kolkata-based artist had been drawn towards characters rendered vulnerable by power, as well as those who rose to stand up against abuse of power in the form of Christ-like figures—something he shared in common with Nikhil Biswas. The church as a place for spiritual healing with its majestic grandeur and calming atmosphere appealed to Mondal. Playing with a vocabulary that juxtaposed cross-hatching with the effect of stained glass, he presents here a magnificent colossus that has the ability to match its terrestrial status with the celestial of which we are only dimly aware.

29 K. K. HEBBAR 1911-96 21

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Fishing Oil on hardboard, 1991 22.0 x 27.2 in. / 55.9 x 69.1 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower left) ‘Hebbar / 91’ Verso Signed, titled and dated in English ‘K. K. Hebbar / ‘Fishing’ / 91’ Provenance India Art Fund, Mumbai, 2013

A sail, a figure, an eddy, water and earth, this is what makes up the sum of K. K. Hebbar’s painting, Fishing, in which you sense the artist’s attempt to introduce a sense of rhythm and music for the viewer to experience. Listening to violin maestro Yehudi Menuhin in concert in 1970 was what inspired Hebbar to express sound in the form of colours. His artistic experimentations were so successful that one could almost discern the pulse of the music in the artist’s works. His other great love was dance, and Hebbar underwent training in Kathak to understand movement and its expression on canvas. Perhaps that is why his canvas resonates so poetically, its symphony of colours making up the beats and percussion that seem to dance evocatively across this exquisite painting.

30 GANESH PYNE 1937-2013 22

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The Flower Vase Water colour and ink on paper, 1989 9.0 x 6.2 in. / 22.9 x 15.7 cm. Signed and dated in Bengali (lower right) ‘Ganesh Pyne / 89’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, c. 2000 Private collector, Mumbai, 2018

One anticipates the macabre in paintings by Ganesh Pyne whose literal imagery was an exploration of themes of death, darkness, violence and fear. This still-life has a faintly unreal feel, as though of something haunted, but it also has a translucence and delicacy that reveal his mastery in what has been described as the Bengal wash style. This ‘poet of melancholia’ is one of India’s only modernists who found that the technique (but not the subjects) of the Bengal ‘School’ suited him more eminently than those of the Progressives and their associates. A faint moonlit atmosphere—itself eerie—renders the entire composition blue. A bunch of flowers in a vase is set on a table with a layered table cloth. Finely webbed lines form crisscross patterns across the painting, including the drooping stems that resemble clawed hands.

31 K. H. ARA 1914-85 23

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Untitled Water colour and gouache on paper, c. 1960s 14.0 x 18.5 in. / 35.6 x 47.0 cm. Signed in English (lower left) ‘ARA’ Provenance Sotheby’s, Zurich, 2010

That artists can be unpredictable we know well, but that capriciousness coming from someone of the steadfastness of K. H. Ara has the ability to surprise us still. A member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Ara devoted his career to the pursuit of painting—to the exclusion of anything else—still-life compositions and nude studies. This rural gathering is a busy painting where the main focus—of two animals fighting each other— lulls us into viewer complacency. It is only on returning to view the painting that we see the teeming numbers on and around the river in the bottom segment, while colours and outlines indicate a large gathering under a monsoonal sky—possibly a celebration of a community festival or a village haat or market. This is one of Ara’s most ‘peopled’ paintings in an astonishingly modern rendering.

32 RAM KUMAR 1924-2018 24

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Untitled Ink on paper, 1971 22.0 x 28.0 in. / 55.9 x 71.1 cm. Verso Signed and dated in English ‘Ram Kumar / 1971’ Provenance Christie’s, London, 2015

If this black-and-white painting recalls a topographical map at first sight, you may not be entirely wrong. Steps, lanes, courtyards, rooftops—this is Ram Kumar’s Banaras on the Ganga riverfront, the ancient city that was to remain his lifelong muse, having first glimpsed it in 1961, and found it, like Mark Twain, ‘older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together’. A figurative painter at the time, Banaras was the catalyst that launched Ram Kumar’s journey as one of the greatest abstract painters of modern Indian art. Marked mostly by tones of browns, or blues, he opted for grey and black tones only occasionally—as in this case—where he offers us a view, as it were, of mankind’s sacred association with its past.

33 NANDALAL BOSE 1882-1966 25

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Puri Water colour on rice paper, 1950 12.0 x 20.0 in. / 30.5 x 50.8 cm. Signed in Bengali, dated in English and titled in Bengali with artist’s seal (centre right) ‘Nanda / 23/5/50 / Puri' National Art Treasure (non-exportable artwork) Provenance Formerly from the collection of the artist Thence by descent Christie’s, New York, 2013

Calcutta- and Santiniketan-based artists were frequent visitors to Puri where the sacred temple complex and the rough sea offered ideal locations to explore on canvas or paper. Popular legend had it that the sixteenth century Vaishnava saint, Mahaprabhu Chaitanya, had renounced his life in this temple town. Nandalal Bose found this anecdote compelling and painted a series of watercolours to illustrate it. In other works, the saint can be seen dancing in ecstasy in the courtyard of the temple, offering prayers to the sun, walking into the sea while engulfed by waves—and, here, in the last of the series, the sea raging towards the beach under a stormy sky, having allowed Chaitanya to merge with it. Bose was a keen landscape painter in his Santiniketan years but here he uses his training in the wash style of the Bengal ‘School’ to add depth and perspective to this poignant painting.

34 KRISHEN KHANNA B. 1925 26

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Untitled Oil on canvas, 1963 8.0 x 16.0 in. / 20.3 x 40.6 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower left) ‘K Khanna / DEC 63’ Verso Inscribed and signed in English ‘TO BINNY - “A LOVELY AND PATIENT MODEL” MANY HAPPY RETURNS AND A HAPPY CHRISTMAS! KRISHEN’ Provenance A gift from the artist to Blanche (Binnie) Jacobs Postelnek in the 1970s or ’80s. Private collection, USA Bonhams, London, 2016

A professional banker, Krishen Khanna devoted his weekends and any spare hours to painting and made a name for himself before he quit in favour of a full-time career as an artist. Known for his figurative paintings, Khanna was not averse to abstract monotones at the start of his career, guided by his desire to emphasise the importance of brushstrokes in a painting. In the early 1960s, Khanna found himself drawn to painting the frequent forest fires in the Himalayan foothills with their constantly changing form and crackling energy. The work under discussion was made the year his brother-in-law, a gunner in the Indian Army, was accidentally shot dead. He painted funerary flames on the occasion, causing his sister to weep when she saw the result. The glowing red of the embers remained with Khanna, and he made a few more paintings to capture the heart and heat of a well-stoked fire—of which this early painting is a representation.

35 JERAM PATEL 1930-2016 27

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Untitled Blow torched wood with enamel 23.7 x 23.7 in. / 60.2 x 60.2 cm. Verso Signed in English ‘JERAM PATEL’ Provenance Private collection, Ahmedabad, 2018

A perfect example of Jeram Patel’s blowtorch art that he first worked on in the 1960s, it lends credence to his interest in the naturally-occurring anthropomorphic form. Pasting thick layers of plywood in place, the artist crafted symbols with the help of a blowtorch to reinforce a visually strong abstract vocabulary that was simultaneously balanced and tormented—creation born out of destruction. For the viewer, the artwork appears like a raw wound, one that requires healing. Patel used the blowtorch-on-wood medium to craft a new modernism and give abstract art a new direction. If its symbolism stood in for nature itself, it also gave expression to a new intent when art could not be confined to sterile concepts of painting or sculpture—this work could qualify as either—thereby expressing the direction in which modern Indian art was headed. Health concerns resulted in the artist having to abandon the technique for almost three decades before returning to it—making them both rare and unique.

36 ERIC BOWEN 1929-2002 28

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Sacred Relics Oil and encaustic on canvas with hand crafted and painted wooden frame, 1994 51.0 x 35.5 in. / 129.5 x 90.2 cm. Signed and dated in English (centre left) ‘BOWEN-94’ Verso Signed, dated, inscribed and titled in English ‘ERIC BOWEN / 1994 / New York / “SACRED RELICS”’ Provenance Acquired from the artist’s family, Oslo, Norway, 2015

Eric Bowen created Sacred Relics and similar works during the 1990s in America, a half-decade after he had undertaken a twelve-set series, The Right to Life in Peace, that was exhibited at the UN’s headquarters in Geneva. It was Bowen’s response to modern civilisation’s history of war and genocide in the twentieth century. It marked the last phase in Bowen’s practice and veered away from his earlier op-art, constructivist-inspired themes to one that had its origins in his homeland—tantra. Still straddling the space between painting and sculpture, relying on relief-like protrusions, he used the imagery of symbols to create abstract shrine-like works with a sanctum-sanctorum surrounded by the accoutrements of sacred cyphers. Consisting of rectangular forms, and glowing colours, they were Bowen’s tribute to Indian thought and philosophy of which he seemed to have become a late adherent.

37 SOHAN QADRI 1932-2011 29

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Untitled Ink and dye on handmade paper, 2004 27.5 x 39.5 in. / 69.8 x 100.3 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower left) ‘Qadri / 04’ Verso Inscribed, signed and dated in English ‘100 x 70 / 04114 / Qadri / 04 / Sept / cph’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2006

Qadri’s search for a pictorial language to express the sacred divine saw him arrive at a form that redefined neo-tantra art. His technique included puncturing paper to receive applications of ink and dye that diffused and dispersed over the paper surface. In this Untitled 2004 work, a phase when Qadri’s visual vocabulary had become sophisticated, a row of uneven horizontal lines creates a rhythmic pattern, not unlike waves. Intersecting lines at the base, and sentinel-like on the surface at the highest point, break the norm— lone sentinels making a bid for self-enlightenment. In that sense, they are like cosmic waves amidst which one must find one’s spiritual path. A striking feature of Qadri’s work is the frisson-like quality he achieves in his depiction of a diffused light that is physical. Despite the overwhelming blue, Qadri creates a glowing contrast in which light becomes visible amidst darkness.

38 SHOBHA BROOTA B. 1943 30

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Life Beneath the Australian Earth Oil on canvas, 1997 70.2 x 70.5 in. / 178.3 x 179.1 cm. Verso Signed, dated, inscribed and titled in English ‘Shobha Broota / 10/1997 / Australia / “LIFE BENEATH THE AUSTRALIAN EARTH”’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, New Delhi, 2010

Australia may be the New World as far as human civilisations go but it is the oldest landmass on planet earth. Deep within its bowels rage fires from the time when the planet was young. Its continental plate with its shallow seas separated from the mainland millions of years ago, preserving unique forms of natural wonders including birds, animals, trees and vegetation. Fascinated by all this, Shobha Broota looked philosophically at the origin theory—so similar to postulations of Agni, the fire god, in India. Life Beneath the Australian Earth is her homage to life, nature and the civilisational aspect of fire. The beej, or seed, pulsates, its energy radiating outwards, its incandescence visible even within the glow of the overwhelming heat. Broota’s ode to life’s origin is all the more interesting for the association of Charles Darwin’s discoveries in and around Australia with his theory of the origin of life.

39 GOGI SAROJ PAL B. 1945 31

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Kamdhenu Gouache on paper, 1995 22.7 x 17.7 in. / 57.7 x 45.0 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower centre) ‘Gogi Saroj Pal / 95’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, New Delhi, 2005

Gogi Saroj Pal’s Kamdhenu series, painted between 1989 and 1998, depicts a woman whose head, arms and feet are human, but whose torso, legs and tail are those of a cow. The term kamdhenu comes from the ancient story in which the devas, divine male spirits, and asuras, demons, churned up the ocean and brought forth an array of gifts, including a cow that bestowed blessings on everybody. ‘If you are a good woman, you are compared to a holy cow; useful and nurturing,’ the artist has indicated on numerous occasions. The young woman thus trapped in this traditional role forms the subject of this painting—her ruby-red lips and alta-covered hands and feet emphasising her status as ornament, even as she realises her responsibility and finds herself tethered to her role that hold her captive even without visible constraints.

40 PARITOSH SEN 1918-2008 32

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Head Oil on canvas, 1969 27.0 x 27.0 in. / 68.6 x 68.6 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘Paritosh Sen / 1969’ Verso Titled, inscribed and dated in English ‘Head / (Oil) / 1969’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2013

Paritosh Sen had been one of the founder members of the Calcutta Group, an artists’ collective of the 1940s. He was convinced that traditional Indian art had stagnated and that it required rejuvenation while aspiring to be universal and international. Objective representation became his chosen ideal, something he felt could be catalytic in seeking path-breaking directions. This 1969 painting seems a premonitory pronouncement of the decade to follow with its darkness and gloom ignited periodically by fire and sparks of light. Situated between the unitary whole of a head and a bustling expressionism, a face fills up the canvas with emphatic brushstrokes and colour patches that becomes a metaphor for social circumstance. The distorted face mirrors the violence that characterises the period and time. As such, the portrait takes on allegorical overtones, becoming a pointer to ‘time’ through the vehicle of an artist’s language of expression.

41 PRODOSH DAS GUPTA 33 1912-91

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Mother and Child (Egg Series) Bronze, 1971 14.0 x 8.5 x 13.0 in. / 35.6 x 21.6 x 33.0 cm. Inscribed, signed and dated in English (reverse) ‘5/5 / P. Das Gupta /1971’ Edition 5 of 5 Provenance Acquired from the artist’s family, New Delhi, 2019

The cosmic egg has come to be associated with sculptor Prodosh Das Gupta’s practice. He trained in England and France, was influenced by Henry Moore, Giacometti and Brancusi, and reduced sculpture to its minimum essence in his work in India. Evolving into curvaceous concavities, Das Gupta’s forms lent themselves to a wide choice of themes to which he applied them, whether abstract or figurative. Mother and Child, as part of his Egg series, is almost a cliché—the bent posture and rising dip suggestive of a mother holding a child in her lap—a form familiar to us in Jamini Roy’s paintings. Das Gupta’s success was in overcoming the sentimentality associated with the form and turning it abstract, an essential step that changed the contour of the subject from the familiar to the modern.

42 PRABHAKAR BARWE 1936-95 34

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Untitled Ink on paper, 1976 17.7 x 19.5 in. / 45.0 x 49.5 cm. Signed and dated in Marathi (lower right) ‘Prabhakar Barwe / 1976’ and stamp of Weavers Service Centre (lower left) Provenance Art Inc., New Delhi, 2000

Prabhakar Barwe has often been described as one of a group of Indian modernists whose work was considered part of the neo-tantra movement. While not wrong, this is a lazy assessment, for Barwe was an internationalist whose work defied most conventions, even though there were familiar recurrences of objects in his paintings. Among the many influences that shaped his practice was the philosophy of dot, line and space advocated by artist Paul Klee, furthered by his employment at the Weavers’ Service Centre, and this painting is probably an example of motifs for textile weaves or prints—as attested by the stamp in the bottom left corner. His placement of seemingly unconnected motifs is part of the artist’s style of surrealistic displacement of objects across his larger canvases, and the tantric element is clearly in evidence. In refusing to be strait-jacketed within any formulae, Barwe posited himself as one of the most universal of India’s artists while rooted in its core values.

43 SATISH GUJRAL 1925-2020 35

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Rebel Oil and encaustic on canvas, 1963 27.0 x 33.2 in. / 68.6 x 84.3 cm. Signed in Hindi and dated in English (lower left) ‘Satish / 63’ Verso Artist’s name and title in English on stretcher ‘Satish Gujral / “REBEL”’ Provenance Property from the Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan Sotheby’s, New York, 2016

Satish Gujral’s was a rich and varied journey from his Partition paintings to his portraits of political leaders, and, much later, his art-nouveau style figurative canvases with their rich textures and distinctive aesthetic. In the decades in between, he did murals and practiced sculpture and, even for a while, architecture. His abstract paintings belong to this phase, one that lay at the cusp of his ceramic mural art and his paintings. At first glance, its subject resembles a scaffolding—not a far-fetched analogy given that much of New Delhi was still being built in the 1960s. Each form in this painting is sharply etched and outlined, reflecting the Nehruvian zeal for building ‘modern temples’. Gujral’s painting takes cognizance of this to create a landscape composed of the artist’s imagination where unfamiliar shapes hide the everyday familiarity of our cities and homes.

44 SHANTI DAVE B. 1931 36

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Untitled Oil on canvas, 1960 26.0 x 15.2 in. / 66.0 x 38.6 cm. Signed and dated in Gujarati and signed in English (upper right) ‘Shanti Dave / 60 / SHANTI DAVE’ Verso Dated in English ‘1960’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, New Delhi, 2017

Before he made use of encaustic in his work, Shanti Dave had already begun to paint in the abstract using oil impasto that he applied with a high degree of precision. There was a sense, even then, of ‘building’ up his paintings, layer by layer, for a tactile impact. It hinted at hidden strata and hidden or lost worlds in a landscape where the most recent formed the uppermost tier. Dave’s obsession with layered abstracts was probably borne of his visits to historical excavations where the earth would be slowly opened up to reveal its secrets—something he found fascinating. The attention he brought to the exact delineation of colour and brushstroke would help him in his work as a muralist later in the decade, but in 1960 he seemed to be revelling in the intensity of colours that he was able to bring together to create a composition with a great sense of harmony.

45 MADHVI PAREKH B. 1942 37

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Deepa’s Family Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 1974 29.0 x 23.0 in. / 73.7 x 58.4 cm. Signed and dated in Hindi (upper left) ‘Madhvi Parekh / 74’ Verso Title, artist’s name, date and inscription in English ‘Deepa’s Family / MADHVI PAREKH / 74 / 3/43 Jangpura B New Delhi 14 India’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, New Delhi, 2015

Deepa is artist Madhvi Parekh’s second daughter, and when she was born, her mother’s gift to her in their cramped living quarters was a world of fantasy and imagination in which all the natural world was one’s friend. An unschooled artist, Parekh drew on her childhood memories of life in a Gujarati village where nature formed part of it. Birds and beings, fish and things, trees and fields were part of an organic togetherness and co-existence was natural. Using the stylistic technique of traditional embroidery, Parekh fills the canvas with creatures great and small, caring neither for perspective, nor scale, imagining the world for her child, but also imagining it as the child might see it—a place at once familiar and unfamiliar but without any sense of threat or danger, simply a beautiful place to discover in the company of friends.

46 AMITAVA B. 1947 38

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Sky, Earth, Sea, Figure Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1992-93 64.2 x 50.5 in. / 163.1 x 128.3 cm. 4/4 - 64.2 x 22.7 in. / 163.1 x 57.6 cm. 1/4, 2/4 and 3/4 - 19.7 x 27.5 in. / 50.0 x 69.8 cm. (each) Verso Each panel is signed, titled, dated and inscribed in English and carries a panel number (1/4, 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 respectively) ‘AMITAVA DAS / PAINTING - SKY, EARTH, SEA, FIGURE / 1992 -93 / ACRYLIC / OIL ON CANVAS’ Provenance Synergy Art Foundation, Mumbai, 2010

The viewer encounters ‘a painting in parts’ or ‘parts in a painting’ in Amitava’s four- piece work—Sky, Earth, Sea, Figure—intensifying the power of the elements with thick layers of paint. For Amitava, the act of painting became its language of painting, a vocabulary based on his multiple engagements with subject, material and technique. Assembling his components together, the artist has created a distinct visuality within each frame, pushing space in and out of pigments to create narratives that animate each segment. His earth, here, is a muddy ochre, the sea a deep ultramarine, the sky a grey opaqueness—each represented by a species that inhabits them—united by the large protean figure submerging into the darkness of night. Amitava’s work here is the stuff of memory and physicality, marking the artist’s genius.

47 RAJENDRA DHAWAN 1936-2012 39

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Untitled Oil on canvas, 1979 27.5 x 54.7 in. / 69.8 x 138.9 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘DHAWAN / 79’ Verso Signed and dated twice in English ‘DHAWAN / 1979 / DHAWAN / 79’; label of BODHI ART with artist name, title, inscription and date ‘Artist: Rajndra Dhawan [sic] / Title: Untitled / Medium: Oil on Canvas / Size: 28x55 Inches / Year: 1979’ Provenance Bodhi Art, New Delhi, 2017

To say that his paintings were a reflection of his soul might be an overstatement. Few people knew Rajendra Dhawan, though they knew of him—this painter of abstracts so gently present in life that he could just as easily have been absent. It is this subliminal quality that is the essence of Dhawan’s paintings, an inscape of poetic reluctance. For these are landscapes, but Dhawan did not intend his viewers to go looking for hidden meanings in them. Yet, those meanings are there—an acceptance of the forces of nature and the ability to deal with them. Dhawan found in even his hardest, most trying moments, a grace, an elegiacal ode to life. His colours, hard to begin with, are rendered with a melodic softness, a true reflection of the artist’s personality.

48 ZARINA HASHMI 1937-2020 40

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Man Lithograph on paper, 1966 15.2 x 11.5 in. / 38.6 x 29.2 cm. On print: Signed, dated and inscribed in English (lower right) ‘Zarina / 66 / With best wishes to Lilianne / Zarina’, titled in English (lower centre) ‘Man’ and inscribed in English ‘E/A’ Artist Proof Provenance Cornette de Saint CYR, Paris, 2017

When she arrived in Paris in 1963 with her diplomat husband, Zarina Hashmi’s first port of call was the studio of Stanley Hayter, Atelier 17, well known to printmakers in India and around the world. ‘I have never been to an art school, and I’ve studied science,’ she told him, to which he replied: ‘I have never been to an art school, I’m a science student, too.’ Man, a print made in Paris, shows Hashmi’s use of abstracted patterns while dealing with a humanistic theme, perhaps along the lines of Sartre’s and Camus’s existential questioning of the meaning of man’s existence. The print also shows the artistic interaction between Hashmi, Hayter and Krishna Reddy, and how they informed each other’s work. Later, her art became much more minimalistic, with barely any use of colour.

49 SAKTI BURMAN B. 1935 41

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Untitled Oil and acrylic on canvas 17.7 x 21.0 in. / 45.0 x 53.3 cm. Signed in English (lower right) ‘SAKTI BURMAN’ Provenance Private collection, Paris

Shades of blue form Sakti Burman’s favourite palette. While he lived far away in France, maybe they reminded him of Indian gods and goddesses—Kali, Krishna, Ram… After all, his leit motif is nostalgia, reproduced in his paintings through his ‘marbling’ technique created when drops of water combine with oil paint. Somewhat disconcertingly, but also delightfully, he brings together, in his paintings, people and places, gods and saints, family, neighbours and glimpsed strangers, building up a happy never-never land of imagination. In this Untitled painting, Burman’s cheerful diversion is a mirror with a reflection framed within it, with a peacock and owl on either side—somewhat narcissistic, self-absorbed birds—presented here like the Three Graces of beauty, youth and elegance. In Burman’s topsy-turvy world, you enter at your own peril, for it is seductive in its lure and can bewitch you into never leaving again.

50 JYOTI BHATT B. 1934 42

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Billi Bai Oil and acrylic on hardboard, 2003 24.0 x 29.7 in. / 61.0 x 75.4 cm. Signed and dated in Gujarati (lower left) ‘Jyoti Bhatt / 2003’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, Vadodara, 2015

The cat is the subject of numerous children’s tales, often evoked as an elderly relative—a mausi, or aunt—worldly-wise and acid-tongued. Here, the feline with a fish in its paw is respectfully addressed as the Billi Bai of the title. Jyoti Bhatt has made numerous paintings that make use of the limitless possibilities of geometrical permutations and combinations, though they remain in touch with representational forms. He arranges compositional elements along a grid-like pattern akin to a stained-glass window. The structural design follows the contours of the shapes represented with no distinction being made between solid forms and ephemeral patterns that are cast in a play of colours. His grid-like patterning accentuates the outlines of form and flatness of the two-dimensional purity quite different from the space and time evoked through rigid, geometric compositional patterns in European modernism.

51 S. NANDAGOPAL 1946-2017 43

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Memories of Hero Stone IV Welded copper and cast brass supported by iron armature, 2005 44.5 x 29.0 x 12.0 in. / 113.0 x 73.7 x 30.5 cm. Verso Signed and dated in English ‘S Nandagopal / 2005’ Provenance Private collection, Singapore, 2018

The tradition of hero stones in south India existed in the dolmen form during the Chola period in Tamil Nadu, and as slabs with sculptural reliefs and inscriptions in Karnataka. In essence, they celebrated the heroism, martyrdom or celestial journey of battle heroes, a practice that has been prevalent in different parts of the world since the dawn of time. S. Nandagopal studied classical Indian sculptures extensively before deciding on these viragas for his inspiration. The nature of his work was reductionist, even though he embellished his choice of metals in the relief pattern he admired on temple doorways. This magnificent-sized, flattened sculpture marks a duel between individuals in which the death mask of the figure held aloft is in contrast to the exultant status of the victor, his arms flung overhead in triumph.

52 RAMGOPAL VIJAIVARGIYA 44 1905–2003

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Untitled Water colour wash on paper 30.0 x 22.0 in. / 76.2 x 55.9 cm. Signed in Hindi (lower right) ‘Ramgopal Vijaivargiya’ Provenance Private collection, Kolkata, 2015

Young love—the subject of so much poetry, literature, cinema—and art… Ramgopal Vijaivargiya’s distinguishing characteristic was to use the romantic wash style of the Bengal ‘School’, in which he had formally trained, to paint subjects of ethereal beauty. Oftentimes, they were based on the epics, but just as frequently he gave us subjects of tender amour, such as this painting of youthful lovers. The miniature tradition first evolved the nayika as a subject of romantic longing, the maiden waiting for her paramour to join her in the night. In Vijaivargiya’s painting, we are unsure whether the man has been delayed while the woman sleeps, or whether he is stealing away from her after a night of passion. Either way, the artist offers viewers a reason to warm the cockles of their heart.

53 REKHA RODWITTIYA B. 1958 45

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The Old Lovers Acrylic, ink, charcoal and pastel on paper, 1989 68.7 x 55.5 in. / 174.5 x 141.0 cm. Verso Titled and dated in English ‘The Old Lovers / 1989’ Provenance Synergy Art Foundation, Mumbai, 2011

For an artist, Baroda was one of the most exciting places in the 1980s given the nature of its output, experiments of its artists with mediums and materials, its intellectual heft, and the choice of subjects that combined intimacy and domesticity with street life and connected it with global historicity. It was at the cusp of her Swedish residency, a year before she was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation’s Asian Cultural Council Starr Fellowship, that Rekha Rodwittiya made this portrait of lovers past their prime, mellowed by age, apart in their thoughts, but together in a companionship now impossible to erase. Amidst signs of a shared habitat—the upholstered chair and carpet, vase and calendar— the artist raises pertinent contemporary issues about what a partnership should entail. Is a life lived physically together compensation enough for a divergence of opinions? Or is there comfort to be found in a relationship despite those obvious differences?

54 ANUPAM SUD B. 1944 46 01

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Dining with Ego Etching on paper, 1999 20.0 x 38.7 in. / 50.8 x 98.3 cm. On print: Signed and dated in English (lower right) ‘Anupam Sud / 99’, titled in English (lower centre) “Dining with ego” and inscribed in English (lower left) ‘14/15’ Edition 14 of 15 Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, New Delhi, 2019

As an artist, Anupam Sud’s interest in people revolved around relationships, and she chronicled this surveillance of desire, loneliness and the role of technology without the concomitant taking of sides. Her acute sense of observation penetrated the social armour of her protagonists, thus wandering into their hearts and minds as a voyeur might. Dining With Ego is one of her more important works which shows the crumbling relationship of a couple, even though they lack for nothing materially, as construed by the groaning table laden with choice repasts. He eats his meal while she sits before her empty plate, uncaring of her own hunger, appetite, or the need of companionship—a scathing comment on their state of boredom with each other. More than nourishment for their stomachs, what they need is nourishment for their souls damaged by pride and ego.

55 ALTAF 1942-2005 47

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Man-Woman…Scenes from an Intimate Diary - I Oil on canvas, 1992 60.0 x 40.0 in. / 152.4 x 101.6 cm. Verso Signed, titled and dated in English ‘ALTAF / ‘MAN-WOMAN…SCENES FROM AN INTIMATE DIARY’- I / JULY 92’ Provenance Acquired from the artist’s family, Mumbai, 2010

Altaf liked keeping a diary, even though he maintained it when young, and only intermittently in his later years. By then, his work had stepped in to take the place of his journal, often turning his paintings into a series to ensure a continuity of themes and ideas. Altaf ’s concern with the personal in his work was always very moving. His edgy brushstrokes, far from lending an ambivalence and disjointedness, resulted in pointing to the chasm between individuals and their aspirations from and of each other. He discovered that private issues could cause as deep fissures as communal or political ones, and he highlighted the strains of this discord on his canvases. The two protagonists in this painting are seen performing different acts in unison together, though, in essence, as the main figures in the forefront indicate, there is a great divide between them that they are unable to gulf.

56 K. LAXMA GOUD B. 1940 48

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Untitled Graphite on handmade paper, 1989 18.0 x 20.7 in. / 45.7 x 52.6 cm. Signed and dated in Telugu (lower left) ‘K. Laxma Goud / 1989’ Provenance Private collection, New Delhi, 2013

The habitat in K. Laxma Goud’s painterly imagination is the landscape of his childhood—raw, sensual and full of primal potency. In its childlike frankness, it offers a counterpoint to the romanticised view of post-Independence aesthetics. An eye for meticulous detail and incisiveness marked by hatched lines set apart this work of graphite on paper. The artist’s protagonist—a woman appearing as a goddess—has a raw, earthy appeal, her feminine curves brought to life by the master draughtsman’s pencil. Goud has always explored man’s connection to his environment in his works, seeing eroticism in nature itself. Adding to the sensuality of the work is the goat of the woman’s vahana. Goats have been a recurrent theme in Goud’s works as he uses them to express a natural, open sexuality. It is his observed view that sexuality is as inherent in all aspects of nature as in our minds.

57 AMIT AMBALAL B. 1943 49

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Jacuzzi in Jurassic Park Oil on canvas, 2008 60.0 x 78.2 in. / 152.4 x 198.6 cm. Signed in English (lower right) ‘Amit’ Verso Signed, inscribed, dated and titled in English ‘ Amit Ambalal / oil on canvas / 5’ x 6’.5” / 2008 / ‘Jacuzzi in Jurasic Park [sic]’ Provenance Acquired directly from the artist, Ahmedabad, 2016

Amit Ambalal’s ability to engage us with humour has in no way impaired his ability to paint with fiendish delight subjects that struck him as ironical. As an observer of human idiosyncrasies, he has mocked the aspirations of the middle-class with an affection that is at odds with its ambitions. It is this turn he takes in this large painting in which he draws our attention to people’s increasing need for luxuries even when out in the wilderness. As tourists to wildlife parks, visitors are more attracted by the facilities available at a resort than by the wildlife they hope to spot. From innocuous frogs and insects to snakes and tigers, or other extraordinary creatures that go bump in the night, the modern traveller is oblivious to their presence in a craven need for ‘creature’ comforts.

58 NIKHIL BISWAS 1930-66 50

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Untitled Ink on paper, 1965 37.2 x 28.2 in. / 94.5 x 71.6 cm. Signed and dated in English (lower left) ‘Nikhil / 1965’ Verso Work in charcoal Provenance Private collection, New Delhi, 2013

Starting from the Harlequin images and other Blue period paintings by Pablo Picasso, Max Beckmann and noteworthy others, the clown had emerged as an established symbol in Western painting by the time Nikhil Biswas interpreted it in his work. The image of the clown is often related to satire, dark comedy and social commentary. In this image, the clowns are characterised by static bodies, elongated limbs and melancholic expressions. Their burlesque costumes and the swirl of curtains behind point towards a theatrical presentation in which one clown passes the crown—or burden of speaking truth to power—to the other, a metaphoric shift in relationship. Biswas’s brush treatment is harsh, the figures show only a hint of modulation, and a certain restlessness and anxiety is suggested. The artist’s interpretation of suffering, a recurrent theme in his works, is subtly infused with sarcasm in this work.

59 CONDITIONS TO BUY Glossary of Terms Words in bold used herein have a special meaning attributed to them, details of which can be referred by you in this Part. Please refer to the terms below while reading the ‘Conditions to Buy’.

‘Buyer’ shall mean such person who has confirmed purchasing the Lot(s) and paid the Purchase Price as per terms contained herein. ‘Catalogue’ shall mean the e-catalogue published specifically for this Sale, whether in print or any electronic form, setting out details of Sale including, without limitation, description, price and other details pertaining to Lot(s). ‘Lockdown’ shall mean the restrictions, if any, by the Government of India/States restricting movement as a preventive measure against the coronavirus pandemic In India. ‘Lot(s)’ shall mean such item which has been offered for Sale and more particularly described in the Catalogue. ‘Post-Sale Documents’ include, with respect to each purchased Lot, a Certificate of Authenticity, a Statement of Provenance and a Condition Report in DAG’s customary form. A post-sale Condition Report issued with respect to a purchased Lot shall supersede any pre-sale Condition Report with respect to the said Lot. ‘Purchase Price’ shall mean the aggregate of the price of the Lot and applicable charges, duties and taxes, if any, thereon. Currently, applicable rate of Goods & Services Tax (GST) on sale of artworks within India is 12%. ‘Sale’ shall mean this fixed-price sale.

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Severability If any part of these conditions is found by any court of law to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that part may be discounted and the rest of the conditions shall be enforceable to the fullest extent permissible by law.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction These terms and conditions of Sale are subject to the laws of India and all parties hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts at Delhi, India. 62 ARTIST PROFILES

63 J. SULTAN ALI (1920-90)

J. Sultan Ali left his family in Bombay and travelled to Madras to study under sculptor-teacher D. P. Roy Chowdhury. After completing a formal training in painting, textile design and photography, Ali found himself drawn to the designs of folk and tribal art. While he largely drew inspiration from Hindu mythology, the search for new imagery led him to calligraphic symbols of words and sounds. Ali joined the Progressive Painters’ Association, Madras, in 1954, and taught at Rishi Valley School in the early Fifties. He was honoured with the Lalit Kala National Award in 1966 and 1978.

ALTAF (1942-2005)

At a young age, Altaf Mohamedi’s nascent talent was encouraged by his teacher Niyogi and elder sister Nasreen, also an artist of high repute. Deeply influenced by Marxist ideologies, Altaf was committed to investigating different aspects of the human condition—loneliness, despair, fear and hope. Using colour, he explored the dark psychic recesses of the mind and the ambiguities of life represented by haunting shadows and floating heads in his paintings. In 1994, he was awarded the Shiromani Kala Puraskar by the Government of India. In 1998, he participated in the exhibition Artists from India and Pakistan held in Hong Kong. DAG has held retrospectives of Altaf in Mumbai and New Delhi.

AMIT AMBALAL (B. 1943)

Amit Ambalal became a full-time painter only at the age of thirty-six and has since created art that is perceptibly playful and derived from personal experiences and folk stories. Humour and irony find equal footing on his canvas, teasing in part both the painted subject and the viewer. A founder member and secretary of the Contemporary Painters Group in Ahmedabad, Ambalal has been a member of various educational and cultural institutions like Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal and National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. He lives in Ahmedabad.

AMITAVA (B. 1947)

As a young artist, Amitava was inspired by the Bengali poetry of Jibanananda Das and Shakti Bandhopadhyay, a nurturing that was supplemented by his love for philosophy. The existential dilemma of a man thrown into a world as a stranger is a trait often found in his art. Amitava’s affiliation is primarily to expressionism, even as his art appears to spring from an enigmatic subjectivity. In the Seventies, he was part of New Group and Artists’ Forum, and in the same decade won the Lalit Kala National Award. In 1989, he was awarded a fellowship with which he travelled to Germany, studying exhibition and graphic design. Amitava lives and works in New Delhi.

64 ANONYMOUS (EARLY BENGAL)

Several anonymous oils on mythological themes began emerging in Bengal in late 18th century from the respective French and Dutch colonies of Chandernagore and Chinsurah. Painted in a hybridised semi—academic style and based on religious themes from Ramayana, Mahabharata and local folklore, these unsigned and undated paintings are collectively called ‘early Bengal oils’. The choice of iconography and colour palette was local, whilst the application of oil emulated Western art. Patronised by the urban elite, the genre began to suffer by the late 19th-early 20th century with cheaper lithographs and oleographs overtaking the market.

ANONYMOUS (KALIGHAT PATS)

The Kalighat temple in Calcutta, built in 1809, became home to a community when folk artists making scrolls and terracotta idols settled around the temple area. Descendants of artisan castes, patuas, kamars or kumors, they practiced their traditional art on newly introduced cheap mechanical paper. The Kalighat style was an amalgamation of different mediums and idioms, and by adopting popular urban elements, they acquired currency as religious tokens, consisting of painted images of deities and local legends, but also later showcased non-religious images of the scandalous babu culture. Though this school of painting dissipated early in the 20th century, it continues to influence modern artists to the present day.

ANONYMOUS (PORTRAITURE)

Rendered in realist styles using oil paint, academic portraits during the colonial period were painted with great attention to verisimilitude and lighting, aiming to bring forth the sitter’s personality. The first of these portraits were done by Europeans of ‘public’ women and men—courtesans and dancers—who were painted in all their finery. By late 19th-early 20th century, ‘respectable’ families too began to commission painters, now art-school trained Indians who applied the best of their European training to portray their Indian subjects. Royal families and the wealthy elite commissioned their portraits in regalia, framed by accoutrements, images displayed to serve as records of the patron’s wealth and status.

K.H. ARA (1914-85)

K. H. Ara, a founder member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, was a self-taught artist born into penury and imprisoned for participating in Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha movement. Ara became an exemplar of a modern artist who pursued and practiced art despite the adverse circumstances of his life in Bombay. His art was always intuitive, imaginative, spontaneous and improvised and not deliberate or intellectual, intent on finding expression. Ara won several awards in his lifetime, including annual prizes of the Bombay Art Society, the Governor’s Prize, and an award from UNESCO, all before Independence. He was both fellow and general council member of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.

65 PRABHAKAR BARWE (1936-95)

Grandnephew of well-known sculptor V. P. Karmakar, Prabhakar Barwe studied at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. His fascination with abstraction reflected in early watercolours that drew on the work of Bauhaus painter Paul Klee, but later gave way to tantra oriented objects and symbols during time at Varanasi’s Weavers’ Service Centre. Barwe evolved a universal, abstract visual language that explored inward spaces and transient realities. In 1990, he published Kora Canvas, a collection of writing on the creative process.

JYOTI BHATT (B. 1934)

Born in 1934 in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Jyoti Bhatt studied painting and printmaking at M. S. University in Baroda. Inspired by his mentor, artist K. G. Subramanyan, Bhatt explored the academic divides between art and craft. A keen experimenter, his works reflected a variety of styles before arriving at designs that are folk inspired. Though a multidisciplinary artist, his work with photography and printmaking garnered the most acclaim. A founder member of the Baroda Group of Artists, he also joined the artistic initiative, Group 1890. Bhatt lives and works in Baroda.

BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE (1940-2006)

Born into a middle-class Bengali family, Bikash Bhattacharjee became prolific in a style that was simultaneously traditional as well as academic. Like a lot of his Bengali contemporaries, he was sympathetic to the principles and objectives of the Communist Party, sharing their cultural values. His highly individualised perception and interpretation of the world differed from the imagery representing either political leaders or suffering people. Bhattacharjee was generously awarded: by the Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta in 1962, winning Lalit Kala Akademi’s National Award in 1971, the Bangla Ratna from the state government in 1987 and bestowed the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1988.

NIKHIL BISWAS (1930-66)

Born in Calcutta, Nikhil Biswas was an indefatigable art activist and a firm believer in collective action. A founder member of the Calcutta Painters Group, Chitrangshu Group and The Society of Contemporary Artists, Biswas was committed to transforming contemporary artistic thought. After receiving his training in art from Calcutta’s Government Art College, in the midst of the abstract wave that influenced India in the Sixties, he deliberately chose a figurative language. Despite a devastatingly premature death, the artist produced around ten thousand works, mostly black and white drawings on paper.

66 NANDALAL BOSE (1882-1966)

Groomed initially by Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose drew early philosophical inspiration from Ananda Coomaraswamy, Sister Nivedita and E. B. Havell. Bose experimented with flat spaces seen in Mughal and Rajasthani miniatures, and incorporated Sino-Japanese styles in his washes. While working with Japanese painters at Calcutta and Santiniketan, he developed a calligraphic lyricism that became iconic to his painted line. In 1919, he joined Kala Bhavana as its first principal, mentoring a generation of artists such as the stalwarts Ramkinkar Baij and Benode Behari Mukherjee. Awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1954, his works were declared a National Art Treasure in 1972.

ERIC BOWEN (1929-2002)

Eric Bowen was born in Allahabad but eventually settled down in Oslo, Norway. In 1959, he received a diploma from College of Art, New Delhi. Though he joined the short-lived Group 1890, Bowen’s journey to be a part of the significant art movements in the 1960s took root when he and Paramjit Singh started Group Unknown, a Delhi-based collective of young artists and sculptors. In the 1980s, tantric-inspired designs were seen in his work, which paid attention to texturing and refashioned the utilitarian canvas-frame as part of the artistic process.

SHOBHA BROOTA (B. 1943)

Classical Indian ragas form one of the basics of Shobha Broota’s celebrated style, captured as outward vibrations on the canvas surface. She studied at the College of Art in Delhi, receiving a diploma in 1964. Fusing aesthetics with transcendence, Broota’s art is an amalgam of abstraction, mysticism and the quest for a higher ideal, infused with lyrical inspiration, harmony and serenity. The artist lives in New Delhi.

SAKTI BURMAN (B. 1935)

Sakti Burman studied at Government College of Art, Calcutta, and later at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris. In his work, often exploring fantasy and fable, Burman invokes the texture of Italian renaissance frescos and Ajanta cave paintings. His works carry a delicate marbling effect, accidentally discovered by the artist when he spilt water on an oil canvas. He brought the same effect to his prints, achieving the marbling on the surface through a laborious and time-consuming technical process in close collaboration with his printmakers— who were also known be to employed by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

67 AVINASH CHANDRA (1931-91)

After completing his course at Delhi Polytechnic, Avinash Chandra taught at his alma mater for a few years. In 1956, he moved to England and studied the art of Vincent van Gogh and Chaim Soutine, where he found the European urban landscape inspiring. Chandra’s elegant line drawings that began in the Sixties continued to evolve through the Seventies to become implicit, erotic coloured drawings. He was the first Indian artist to exhibit at one of the most important art events worldwide, the Documenta, in Kassel, West Germany, in 1964. Chandra’s work is widely collected, especially by museums across the U.K.

JOGEN CHOWDHURY (B. 1939)

Jogen Chowdhury moved to Calcutta after Partition, studying at Government College of Art and Craft. A student of Prodosh Das Gupta, he worked in a confident expressionistic style during his early years. He spent three years in Paris working within the academic mode, but after returning to India developed a distinct modernist approach, characterised by intense texturing and spindly appearance to painted forms. He interprets the human form as simplified, the body oftentimes placed against a dark, vacant background. A celebrated and awarded artist, Chowdhury continues to work and live in Kolkata and Santiniketan.

SUNIL DAS (1939-2015)

A student of Calcutta’s Government Art College, Sunil Das travelled to Paris and studied at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts and worked with William Hayter and Krishna Reddy at Atelier 17. Celebrated for his iconic drawings of animals, Das’s bulls were inspired after observing Spanish bullfights. He experimented across techniques, mediums and styles, charging his images with changing ideas and painting in both the figurative and abstract modes while also including elements inspired by tantra. Das was awarded by the state government and the Lalit Kala Akademi, and invited as a juror to art bodies in India, France and Brazil.

PRODOSH DAS GUPTA (1912-91)

Prodosh Das Gupta graduated from Calcutta University before studying sculpture under Hironmoy Roy Chowdhary and D. P. Roy Chowdhury in Lucknow and Madras respectively. A member of the Calcutta Group, he went to Royal Academy of Arts in London and Ecole de Chaumiere in Paris, before setting up his studio in Calcutta in 1940. Das Gupta found inspiration in the fluid rhythm and gliding forms of Western masters Rodin, Brancusi, Arp and Henry Moore. In his distinctive career, Das Gupta also held office as director of the National Gallery of Modern Art.

68 SHANTI DAVE (B. 1931)

Following a childhood in rural Gujarat, Shanti Dave arrived in Baroda to study at M. S. University under N. S. Bendre. Here, he co-founded the Baroda Group in 1957 with fellow artists. Dave’s painting style is non-objective and is disingenuously abstract, experimenting with the encaustic medium to create works in high relief. He received the Padma Shri in 1985 and the Sahitya Kala Parishad’s award in 1986. The artist lives in New Delhi.

RAJENDRA DHAWAN (1936-2012)

Rajendra Dhawan studied at Delhi’s College of Art (1953-58), and thereafter in Belgrade (1960-62). He was a founding-member of The Unknown group that was active between 1960-64. In 1970, he left India to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and subsequently settled in France. The abstraction in Dhawan’s work stayed constant throughout his career, with no shifts or turns that are discernible.

M.V. DHURANDHAR (1867-1944)

Rai Bahadur M. V. Dhurandhar received his training from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, and found early success after winning the gold medal from the Bombay Art Society for his oil painting Do You Come Laxmi?. He joined his alma mater as a teacher, and at the end of a long and illustrious career, became the school’s first Indian director in 1930. Dhurandhar was the foremost and most significant among the Bombay school of artists, maintaining a fine balance between academic realism and popular commercial art. Several of his works were scenes from Hindu mythology, and he also illustrated Otto Rothfield book Women of India, which attained renown in colonial circles.

K. LAXMA GOUD (B. 1940)

Hailing from a rural background in Andhra Pradesh, Laxma Goud completed a diploma in painting and drawing from the Government College of Fine Arts and Architecture in Hyderabad, and a post-diploma from M. S. University, Baroda. By the late Sixties, he had evolved a distinct style that reflected a pan-natural sexuality seen in terms of spontaneous, uninhibited passions, unfettered by the puritanical ethics of the urban middle class. A master draughtsman, Goud pioneered the art of printmaking and painting, excelling in the handling of a variety of mediums. Goud’s works feature in international collections like The Philips Collection, Washington D.C. amongst others. He lives and works in Hyderabad.

69 SATISH GUJRAL (1925-2020)

Born in Jhelum in pre-Partition west Punjab, trained at Mayo School of Arts and later at Sir J. J. school of Art in Bombay, Satish Gujral won international recognition over the years for his versatile creativity that ran through his paintings, graphics, murals, sculptures and architecture. A trip to Mexico on a scholarship and interactions with Diego Rivera inspired his practice. Widely collected in India and abroad, Gujral received numerous awards including the da Vinci Award for lifetime achievement from Mexico, honours from the Lalit Kala Akademi, and a Padma Vibhushan from the Government of India.

ZARINA HASHMI (1937-2020)

Zarina Hashmi graduated with honours in Science from Aligarh Muslim University before pursuing a course and career in printmaking. During 1963-67, she studied under S. W. Hayter in Paris at Atelier 17. In 1974, she joined the Toshi Yoshido Studio to study woodblock printing. Engaging herself in the politics of space, the artist had undertaken a personal journey where she questioned identity, the meaning of home, the urge for roots, memory and history. She received two residencies in New York—the Women’s Studio Workshop at Rosendale in 1991 and at Art Omi in 1994.

K.K. HEBBAR (1911-96)

K. K. Hebbar was drawn to impressionism during his stay at Sir J. J. School of Art, while classical dance became his primary muse later in life. In Paris, he studied painting at Academie Julian under Cavailles, an impressionist painter, following which he studied graphics at Ecole Estienne. Returning to India, he experimented with mediums and different painting styles and even learnt Kathak in an attempt to comprehend rhythm. Hebbar was the chairman of the Artist’s Centre in Bombay during 1953-73 and elected a fellow to Lalit Kala Akademi in 1976, while Mysore University bestowed on him an honorary D.Litt. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1989.

M.F. HUSAIN (1913-2011)

Born in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, M. F. Husain came to Bombay in 1937, where he began his career by painting cinema posters and hoardings. A member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Husain was a peripatetic painter, constantly on the move, covering both geographical and conceptual territories, and transited at will between painting and poetry, assemblage and performance, installation and cinema. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1966, the Padma Bhushan in 1973 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1991 by the Indian government. Having fled from India following death threats and obscenity cases filed against him, the artist died in exile in London in 2011.

70 GEORGE KEYT (1901-93)

Born into a prosperous Ceylonese family of Indo-Dutch origin, George Keyt spent his childhood in a multicultural environment, a premise that would later appear in his work. A self-taught artist, Keyt began to paint seriously by the age of twenty-six, with Buddhist literature and temple architecture as early subjects. Keyt’s attraction to the European style—fist Cezanne, and later cubism, especially Picasso’s crisp lines and structural rendering of forms—did not affect his subjects drawn from religious narratives, and on Indian erotic iconography. From his first exhibition in the late 1920s, Keyt has remained, almost a century later, one of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated painters.

KRISHEN KHANNA (B. 1925)

Born in Lyallpur in pre-Partition Punjab, Krishen Khanna grew up in Lahore and moved to Simla post Partition. While studying English literature at Government College in Lahore, he took evening classes in painting at Mayo School of Art. Resigning from his bank employment in 1961, he devoted himself completely to art, and in Bombay, he became part of the extended Progressive Artists’ Group. He was awarded the Rockefeller fellowship in 1962 and was artist-in-residence at the American University in Washington in 1963-64. He received the National Award by Lalit Kala Akademi in 1965, the Lalit Kala Ratna in 2004, the Padma Shri in 1990 and the Padma Bhushan in 2011.

K.S. KULKARNI (1916-94)

Born in Belgaum, K. S. Kulkarni completed a diploma in fine art from Sir J. J. School of Art in 1940, following which he came to Delhi in 1943 to work in textile design. He became a member of AIFACS and, later, the founder-president of the Delhi Silpi Chakra. From 1972 to ’78, he served as chairman of Lucknow’s Lalit Kala Akademi, and as vice-chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi during 1973-78. In his art, Kulkarni’s human figures were treated with the decorative grace seen in the classical art of Ajanta, combined with the vitality of a modern vocabulary.

RAM KUMAR (1924-2018)

Ram Kumar was born in Simla in 1924. In addition to a master’s in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, he did evening classes at Sarada Ukil School of Art, where he learnt the ‘Western style’ of painting under the tutelage of Sailoz Mookherjea. His landscapes were devoid of the usual constituents of reality—land, trees, sky, and water were not portrayed in their natural forms, and thus were strongly suggestive of abstract spaces. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government in 1971. In addition to his art, Ram Kumar was also a prolific Hindi writer.

71 RABIN MONDAL (1929-2019)

The 1943 Bengal Famine and the 1946 Calcutta communal riots deeply impacted Rabin Mondal’s psyche, triggering him to join the Communist Party and become an activist. However, Mondal’s final refuge and ultimate weapon of protest became art. His work was typically known for its inspiration from folk art and for its potent simplifications and raw energy. Beginning his career as an art teacher, with a stint as an art director in films, Mondal was a founder member of Calcutta Painters in 1964, and a general council member of the Lalit Kala Akademi during 1979-83.

S. NANDAGOPAL (1946-2017)

Born in Bangalore, S. Nandagopal started out as a painter who eventually took to sculpting upon observing local craftspeople. A member of the Cholamandal Group, Nandagopal’s work in welded sheet metal was characterised by a strong iconic aspect borrowed from mythology. He won the Lalit Kala Akademi National Award in 1970, a gold medal at the Fourth International Triennale, Delhi, in 1978, the Homi Bhabha Fellowship as well as the British Council Travel Grant in 1980. In 1992 and 2002, he was nominated by the Indian government to serve on the purchase committee of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

LAXMAN PAI (B. 1926)

Born in Margao, Goa, Pai studied and later taught at Sir J. J. School of Art, and for a decade was the principal of Goa College of Art. He participated in the Goa liberation movement and was imprisoned for his involvement in Gandhi’s Satyagraha. Years spent in Paris helped him in forming an individual artistic language that incorporated angular simplification, and the use of expressive lines. With influences spanning from Paul Klee, Mark Chagall to Joan Miro, Laxman Pai illustrates an eclectic modernity. Pai has twice won the Lalit Kala Akademi’s National Award, received the Padma Shri and the Goa government’s award.

GOGI SAROJ PAL (B. 1945)

After studying at Banasthali, Rajasthan, Gogi Saroj Pal completed a diploma from Lucknow’s Government College of Arts and Crafts, following it up with a post-diploma in painting from the College of Art, New Delhi. Among her visual devices, Pal often uses the Kamadhenu or wish-fulfilling cow as a metaphor for womankind—both for her giving nature as well as to express her anguish against exploitation. Her Nayika series expands on the facets of feminine attraction, addressing the female as the epitome of sensuality and male desire. Her works are found in major museum collections in Japan, Amsterdam and Poland. She lives in New Delhi.

72 MADHVI PAREKH (B. 1942)

Madhvi Parekh was born and raised in a village in Gujarat. With no formal education in art, her style evolved from childhood memories, popular folk stories and legends from her village. Art formed a part of her consciousness through the forms of painting that were part of her family’s everyday rituals, such as the traditional floor designs of rangoli. Later inspired by her partner Manu Parekh and artists such as Paul Klee and Miro, she began painting in 1964 in her early twenties. Apart from folk motifs, legends and figures, Parekh also uses imaginary characters in figurative and abstracted orientations in her compositions. She lives in Delhi.

JERAM PATEL (1930-2016)

Born in Sojitra, Gujarat, Jeram Patel was educated at Sir J. J. School of Art in the 1950s. He went to London in 1957, studying typography and publicity design at Central School of Arts and Crafts for two years. A member artist of the avant-garde Group 1890, Patel was known for his experimentations with blowtorch relief-sculptures, monochrome drawings and in painting. A four-time winner of the Lalit Kala Akademi’s National Award in 1957, ’63, ’73 and ’84, Patel had exhibited both in India and internationally. His art features in prestigious collections including at NGMA, New Delhi.

GANESH PYNE (1937-2013)

Ganesh Pyne’s work stems from his constant engagement with the nature of existence, time and its passing. The artist was inspired by the rich storehouse of Bengali folklore and mythology, contained first in his grandmother’s stories—building each myth as a comment on humanity and its inherent existential state. Pyne was also deeply affected by the scars of social history and had consistently engaged with the subjects of fear, violence and death. He received the Gagan-Abani Puroskar from Visva-Bharati in 1997, a D.Litt. from Kalyani University and was awarded the Abanindra Puraskar by the state of West Bengal in 2004.

SOHAN QADRI (1932-2011)

Born to a wealthy farming family in Chachoki village in Punjab, Sohan Qadri came across two spiritualists at the age of seven—Bikham Giri, a Bengali tantric-vajrayan yogi, and Ahmed Ali Shah Qadri, a Sufi sant. His association with them heralded a lifelong commitment to spirituality and art. Initially, Qadri painted like his contemporary modernists, veering towards abstraction, but eventually abandoned representation altogether in a search of new transcendental expression. The work he produced from then onwards was a meditative, unique exploration of tantra, where he built up compositions with rows of ink dyed dots puncturing paper.

73 A.A. RAIBA (1922-2016)

Born into a tailor’s family from Bombay, a scholarship allowed A. A. Raiba to study at Sir J. J. School of Art. Raiba was eclectic, his art represented his mixed heritage of Maratha, Islamic and Hindu lineages, in addition to being influenced by a four-year stay in Kashmir and a love for the Kangra miniature school. Christian imagery populated his works, as did the landscapes of India’s coastal southwest. He was commissioned to make large-scale murals by New Delhi’s Ashok Hotel (1956) and Air India (1970).

S.H. RAZA (1922-2016)

S. H. Raza was among the few artists of the Progressive Artists’ Group who almost exclusively excluded the human figure in order to build up his aesthetics. Instead, he was fascinated with landscapes, with which he began his career and later by abstraction, using geometrical lines, intense patches and bursts of colour. Studying at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, led to a turning point in his career. In 1956, he became an overnight sensation across Europe after receiving the Prix de la Critique award. He was honoured with both the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government.

P.T. REDDY (1915-96)

Pakala Thirumal Reddy was born to a farming family in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar district. Defying his family’s opposition to art as a professional practice, Reddy joined Sir J. J. School of Art with a scholarship. In 1941, he formed the Contemporary Painters of Bombay as an artist’s collective, much before the Progressive Artists’ Group. He evolved a unique vision of his own, creating complex compositions, realistic and expressionistic portraits, still-lifes and impressionistic landscapes. His later works are abstract, often revealing a tantric influence with folk motifs and symbols, and a synthesis of almost contrary forms.

REKHA RODWITTIYA (B. 1958)

Born in Bangalore, Rekha Rodwittiya graduated in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University in 1981. In 1982, she received the Inlaks scholarship for post-graduation in painting at the Royal College of Art, London. In her work and filtered through the prism of self-questioning, the artist engages with gender politics, socio-political subjugation, human degradation, violence and discrimination. In 1990, Rodwittiya was awarded a staff fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation Asian Cultural Council to work in U.S.A. She has represented India at several prestigious art shows internationally, apart from a series of workshops and lectures on Indian art.

74 JAMINI ROY (1887-1972)

Having mastered the European academic-realist mode at the Government College of Art and Craft in Calcutta, Jamini Roy began his career as a post-impressionist. But keen to find an untapped genre of indigenous artmaking, he began using primary colours, utilising the flattened perspective from Bengali folk art, in addition to the volumetric forms of urban patachitra. He painted innumerable versions of a subject, breaking and reforming the theme with slight but understandable variations. Roy was awarded with the Viceroy’s Gold Medal in 1935, the Padma Bhushan in 1955, and elected a fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi the following year. He was declared a National Treasure Artist in 1972.

G.R. SANTOSH (1929-97)

The artist was born Gulam Rasool Dar in a Shia Muslim family in Srinagar but took his wife’s surname as his own. He learnt painting from Dina Nath Raina in Kashmir, before studying under N. S. Bendre at Baroda’s M.S. University. In Baroda and for a while after returning home, Santosh painted in a style similar to cubism. In 1964, he travelled to the Amarnath caves in Kashmir and became enamoured with tantric cults that had coexisted in the mountains with Sufi mystics. An originator of the neo-tantra movement, Santosh fused the sexual with the transcendental in his art and poetry, at whose heart was the purusha-prakriti duality.

PARITOSH SEN (1918-2008)

Paritosh Sen ran away from his house in Dhaka to learn artmaking in Madras. He was a participating member of Calcutta Group’s inaugural exhibition in 1942 and travelled to Paris in 1949, where he had a chance to meet Pablo Picasso. Sen’s spontaneous response to the traumatic changes in West Bengal in the 1970s resulted in a series, where, along with large-size canvases, he installed a papier-mâché sculpture after Pop Art, inspired from his travels in Mexico and Egypt. Among awards, the French government conferred on him the L’officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, while the Lalit Kala Akademi honoured him with the Kala Ratna in 2004.

F.N. SOUZA (1924-2002)

A pariah who mutinied against all forms of social conformity, F. N. Souza was expelled from school and later from Sir J. J. School of Art. He was a founder-member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, the most iconic among the modern Indian artist-collectives, but later abandoned it to pursue painting in Europe. Souza found his own blunt, extreme style by combining the expressionism of Rouault and Soutine with the spirit of cubism and the sculptures of classical Indian tradition. Whether nudes, landscapes or portraits, he painted in every style and in every medium, even inventing ‘chemical alterations’, a method of drawing with the use of chemical solvent on a printed page without destroying the glossy surface.

75 ANUPAM SUD (B. 1944)

Born in Punjab, Anupam Sud graduated from College of Art, New Delhi, in 1967 and was the youngest member of Group 8, an association of artists at the college founded by her teacher, Jagmohan Chopra. Sud joined the Slade School of Art in England in 1971 where her sensibility and approach to printmaking underwent a radical change. Her work focuses on the exposed human body and follows a consistent trajectory where historic, religious and mythical references are connected to personal memory. Widely exhibited in India and internationally, DAG and KNMA hosted her retrospective in New York in late 2019. She lives in New Delhi.

RAMGOPAL VIJAIVARGIYA (1905-2003)

Born at Baler in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district in 1905, Vijaivargiya was initiated into painting by a wandering sadhu of the Ram Snehi sect. He joined the Maharaja School of Art and Craft in Jaipur, studying wash painting from Shailendra Nath Dey, and therefore the impact of the Bengal ‘School’ is clearly visible in his art. Vijaivargiya found recognition in his thirties with reproductions of his work in the English dailies Modern Review and Amrit Bazar Patrika and the Bengali Prabasi and Basumati journals, in addition to Gujarati and Hindi magazines. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1984.

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Editor: Kishore Singh

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FRONT COVER 06: J. Sultan Ali, Hasamah Kanya, Oil on canvas, 1985

BACK COVER 22: Ganesh Pyne, The Flower Vase, Water colour and ink on paper, 1989

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