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According to Jogen Chowdhury, “figuration is extremely
important... I want to portray our human environment, the people
of our country, their nature, their way of sitting because they are
different from others. You’ll notice that there’s a peculiar Indianness
in their gestures and that attracts me. And it is this—the particular
characteristics we see—that I wish to distil in my art. I develop
these portrayals through distortion... I try to import in my figures an
extra quality that’s beyond academic naturalism, a certain abstract
quality that makes them supra‒real.” (The artist quoted in Rakhi
Sarkar, Jogen Chowdhury and Rita Dutta,
Jogen Chowdhury: His Life
and Times
, Kolkata: Cima Gallery Pvt. Ltd., 10 February – 11 March
2006, p. 37) His drawings of women are not studies in portraiture,
they are the artist’s very particular interpretation of his subjects,
with a focus on the human body depicted with the aloof curiosity
of scientific observation. In the present lot, the woman, with her
raised arms and averted eyes, suggests a pose sometimes seen in
Indian miniature painting. She is oblivious to the viewer, absorbed
in her own thoughts. The painting assumes a dramatic quality, akin
to a theatrical performance, with the subject illuminated in an
otherwise darkened room.
Couple I ‒ Man and Woman
, 1986.
Saffronart, 8‒9 September 2010, lot 48
Sold for INR 1.59 crores ($354,583)
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT
PRIVATE COLLECTION, GOA
19
JOGEN CHOWDHURY
(b. 1939)
Untitled
Signed and dated in Bengali (upper right); signed
and dated, 'Jogen 1999' (centre right)
1999
Pastel and ink on paper pasted on paper
21 x 27.25 in (53.5 x 69.5 cm)
Rs 45,00,000 ‒ 55,00,000
$ 71,430 ‒ 87,305