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100
JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN
(1928 ‒ 1994)
Untitled (Bird & Mountain Series)
Oil on canvas
31.5 x 45.25 in (80 x 115 cm)
$ 90,000 ‒ 120,000
Rs 57,60,000 ‒ 76,80,000
PROVENANCE:
Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi
Private Collection
Christie's, New York, 23 March 2011, lot 537
”The introduction of the representational context in terms of colour
geometry gives birth to psycho‒symbolic connotations. Thus a
mountain remains not a mountain but becomes the abode of Shiva.
It becomes a totem capable of exercising its magical eternal influence
on those who come within its field of vision.”
J SWAMINATHAN
EXHIBITED:
Remaking the Modern II ‒ London
Summer 2014 Exhibition
, London: Alon
Zakim Fine Art, 6‒9 June 2014
99
M F HUSAIN
(1913 ‒ 2011)
Untitled
Signed in Devnagari (upper left)
Circa 1970s
Oil on canvas
65.75 x 22 in (166.8 x 56 cm)
$ 101,565 ‒ 117,190
Rs 65,00,000 ‒ 75,00,000
PROVENANCE:
Private Family Collection, Punjab
Thence by descent
Private Family Collection, New Delhi
Saffronart, New Delhi, 10 September 2015, lot 27
To say that M F Husain’s art is a tapestry of India would
still be an understatement. Every subject and object
was a source of inspiration to this artist who painted
movie stars and village women with equal zeal. The
present lot presents the colours and imagery of the
Rajasthan landscape. The domed
chhatri
and arched
openings of the stone architecture and the camel with
rider and a blazing sun are painted on a vertical canvas.
But the artist could never be pinned down by so simple
a reading and so we have a Rapunzel‒like figure above
and at the bottom of the tableau, an elephant under a
tree. There are multiple layers to be deciphered in this
composition, rendered in Husain’s deft style.
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