SUMMER ONLINE AUCTION (06-07 JUNE 2017)

TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI

(b. 1969)

Untitled

Signed and inscribed 'TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI / Tayebalipi'

(at the centre)

Stainless steel

Height: 8.5 in (21.5 cm)

Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)

Depth: 9.5 in (24.1 cm)

$ 6,000 ‒ 8,000

Rs 3,84,000 ‒ 5,12,000

PROVENANCE:

Pi Art Gallery, London

Tayeba Begum Lipi is one of Bangladesh’s foremost

contemporary artists. Her practice includes installations,

paintings and sculpture, printmaking, and video as a

means to comment on the politics of gender and female

identity and representation. She is best known for her

sculptural works, which re‒create everyday objects

associated with women and their lives through unlikely

and provocative choice of materials such as metal and

safety pins. The present lot, presents the ubiquitous

women’s handbag or purse made not from the usual

soft leather or cloth but out of gleaming stainless steel

and razor blades to suggest notions of violence, and of

armour and steely confrontation. A note on the artist

on the Guggenheim website states, “Inspired by the

strong women of her childhood, Lipi’s work questions

the representation of women’s bodies and the history

of their social roles, particularly in Bangladesh, where

historical and religious expectations continue to

determine what is permissible.” (Tayeba Begum Lipi,

The Guggenheim, online) Lipi completed a Master of

Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at the Faculty of Fine

Arts, University of Dhaka in 1993, and was awarded a

Grand Prize at the 11

Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in

2003. She has been a presence on the global art stage

since 2012, when she was invited to participate in the

critically acclaimed Guggenheim Museum survey of

contemporary Southeast Asian art titled “No Country”,

and her work is now part of the museum’s permanent

collection. Her work continues to receive acclaim for

its constant innovation and for the conversation she

invokes on the roles and representations of women and

marginalised genders, a topic of increasing relevance not

just in Bangladesh but throughout the world.