Osian's Auction Catalogue India The Passionate Detachment | February 2001

EXPERIMENTS & EXPRESSIONISM 149 120 SAILOZ MOOKHERJEA (1907 — 60) National Art Treasure Teashop Signed in English, l.l. Watercolour, ink & wash on paper, c.1948 25.7 x 36.0 cm. (10.1 x 14.2”) “In his perception, there was no finished crystallization, no permanent hard-set shape. Nothing could cease to be, nothing could be static, finished. The phenomenal world was only a blur refusing to be cast in a mould. In consequence he could never produce a solid definitive shape. He failed and that made him sad. This also explains why the human sigma eluded him and why the women he put in his landscapes are only a sort of rhythm, form without shape. But thanks to his unending preoccupation with his vision, he has left behind masterpieces of exquisite charm.” ( Rooplekha Vol. XXXI, No.2 1960 ). “ Of another kind are the India ink sketches he made of local scenes for the Sunday papers in Delhi. The treatment here is very lively and calligraphic and creates an all over pattern. He uses a medium brush which freely delineates figures and surroundings. He does not dwell on a motif, rather the environment itself is his subject. In these drawings the emphasis is on capturing the mood and atmosphere of a locality and this is achieved with the immediacy and freshness of on-the-spot observation…” (Jaya Appasamy, rpt. in LKA Monograph 1966 ). Rs. 275,000 – 325,000 Non-Exportable Item 121 SAILOZ MOOKHERJEA (1907 — 60) National Art Treasure Bazaar Signed in English, l.r. Watercolour & wash, c.1950 28.6 x 38.8 cm. (11.3 x 15.3”) Rs. 225,000 – 300,000 Non-Exportable Item PAPR Lot 35 HT.Mum/ 15.11.97 Bazaar Scene, Watercolour, pen & ink on paper, 1947 28 x 38 cm. ASP: Rs. 200,000