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

EXPERIMENTS & EXPRESSIONISM 155 129 SANKHO CHAUDHURI (b.1916) Paris Landscape S/d in English, l.r. Watercolour & ink on paper, 1950 43.0 x 30.3 cm. (16.9 x 11.9”) Rs. 50,000 – 75,000 $ 1,065 – 1,595 130 RATAN PARIMOO (b.1936) Harni Mela S/d in English, l.l. Watercolour on paper, 1956 76.5 x 121.5 cm. (30.1 x 47.8”) “Possibly, Parimoo’s intention is to be understood within the general development of the Internationalist Modern art in India, which primarily sought a purely formalist mode in painting. But to some this formalism could be substantial, as in the case of Parimoo, only if it evoked, some how and some what, ‘Indian’ in its appeal… For instance, Matissian colour harmony or Cubist linear rendition could be used for re-reading the specific Indian traditions of two-dimensional, flat painting. This primarily meant interpreting certain traditional values of painting in modern terms. The potential of line drawing and colour values from Jain paintings and Jamini Roy were explored while adjusting these to modernist formalist values. The irony of having to come to Indian traditions via the western modernism is definitely an inevitable aspect, rooted in our post colonial experience.” (Shivaji Panniker, in Nestling a home Away from Home, rpt. in Parimoo : Ceaseless Creativity 1999 , pp8-9). Rs. 80,000 – 125,000 $ 1,700 – 2,660 Refer to B/W Plate # 7 in Parimoo 1999 .