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NOVEMBER 2016 | THE TIES THAT BIND
An
ardent
observer
and
commentator on identity and
socio-political change, Surendran
Nair draws his images from
the abundant global archive of
historical, religious, mythological,
literary, political and artistic facts,
practices and traditions that he
maintains. The artist’s provocative
canvases link previously unrelated
elements from these annals to
push the limits of his viewers’
notions of identity, community
and reality.
“The act of painting is, for Nair,
an offering of metaphors to his
viewers: metaphors from which
they can gauge the curve of the
artist’s imagination while also
staging their own imaginative
departures.
Accordingly,
the
emphasis shifts between the
artistic imagination and the
viewerly one, from one painting to
another. The artist indicates that
someof hisworks areprogrammed
in a relatively open-ended fashion;
they function as scripts, around
which viewers can improvise
their own performances: some
of Nair’s paintings dedicated to
the figure of the actor...function
in this manner.” (Ranjit Hoskote,
“The Openness of Secrecy:
Soliloquy and Conversation in the
Art of Surendran Nair,”
Itinerant
Mythologies: Surendran Nair
,
Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery, 2008, p. 7)
PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN, NEW DELHI
101
SURENDRAN NAIR
(b. 1956)
Romeo Keeps Bleeding
Signed, dated and inscribed ''ROMEO KEEPS BLEEDING' / 2000 /
Surendran' (on the reverse)
2000
Oil on canvas
24.5 x 22.75 in (62.5 x 57.6 cm)
$ 6,065 - 9,095
Rs 4,00,000 - 6,00,000
PROVENANCE:
Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
100
BAIJU PARTHAN
(b. 1956)
Ethnography - Spectacle and Artifice
Signed and dated '2001 Baiju Parthan' (lower right)
and inscribed ''ETHNOGRAPHY - SPECTACLE AND
ARTIFICE' / BAIJU PARTHAN - 2001' (on the reverse)
2001
Acrylic on canvas
47.75 x 35.75 in (121.2 x 90.8 cm)
$ 3,000 - 5,000
Rs 1,98,000 - 3,30,000
This lot is offered at NO RESERVE
PROVENANCE:
Saffronart, 5-6 September 2007, lot 20
EXHIBITED:
Indian Contemporary Fine Art
, Laguna Beach: 7 Degrees,
represented by Saffronart and Apparao Galleries, 9-23
September 2001
Threshold
, New York: Aicon Gallery, 19 February - 31
March 2009
PUBLISHED:
Indian Contemporary Fine Art
, Mumbai: Saffronart, 2001
(illustrated, unpaginated)
Baiju Parthan: A User's Manual
, Mumbai: Afterimage
Publishing, 2006, p. 36 (illustrated)