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Saffronart | Evening Sale
A substantial part of Gieve Patel’s oeuvre has been focussed
on the common man in the city of Mumbai. Fellow artist
Sudhir Patwardhan describes the artist’s “rare sensitivity and
concern” as being “evidence of [his] continuing engagement
with the human condition.” (Sudhir Patwardhan, “Gieve
Patel: Looking into the Well... Beyond Metaphor,”
Critical
Collective,
online) In his large scale canvases, Patel paints
“details of public life and its physical components with
almost altruistic detachment... There is a caustic silence in his
paintings – an imperceptible pause, in a way the moment
of potential. In this, the narrative is strongest, assigning a
special place to the most banal...” (Mala Marwah, “Notes
on Four Artists: Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani, Gieve Patel,
Bhupen Khakhar,”
Lalit Kala Contemporary
,
Volumes 24, 25
,
New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, April 1978, pp. 25-30)
74
GIEVE PATEL
(b. 1940)
Shipbuilding in Mumbai
Signed, dated and inscribed ‘“Shipbuilding in Mumbai”
/ (2005) / Gieve Patel’ (on the reverse)
2005
Acrylic on canvas
69.75 x 120.5 in (177 x 306 cm)
Rs 40,00,000 ‒ 60,00,000
$ 60,610 ‒ 90,910
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, New Delhi
EXHIBITED:
Gieve Patel: Select Works 1971 ‒ 2006
, New Delhi: Gallery
Threshold, 24 September ‒ 22 October 2009; Mumbai:
Chemould Prescott Road, 7 May ‒ 11 June 2010
Kishore Singh ed.,
Manifestations IX
, New Delhi: Delhi Art
Gallery, 2012, pp. 65‒66 (illustrated)
197
“I paint common people…”
GIEVE PATEL