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

EXPERIMENTS & EXPRESSIONISM 167 Rs. 125,000 – 200,000 $ 2,660– 4,255 149 NIKHIL BISWAS (1930 — 66) a. Clown Series S/d in English, l.l. Pen & Ink, 1964 20.8 x 33.2 cm. (8.2 x 13.0”) b. Clown Series S/d in English, l.l. Pen & Ink, 1964 33.0 x 21.0 cm. (13.0 x 8.3”) “One cannot but recognize signs of an almost demonic frenzy in his work. This one fact overrides all others and overwhelms the viewers. One cannot help wondering whether the artist was prescient in some way of his premature death and, therefore, rushed to give expression to his creative urges.. . It is his tortured, tumultuous human figures that best indicate his frantic search for expression of the anguish in his soul. The statement that Biswas once made, “Yes, it is the problem of dehumanistion that confronts us”, perhaps captures the cri de coeur of the painter. It is this realization that he poured forth in his work. The violence with which he did it articulates his protest and registers his revolt against such a condition. ( Ella Datta, in Art Heritage 8, 1988-89 , p109). Rs. 60,000 – 85,000 $ 1,275 – 1,810 (Set of 2) 148 NIKHIL BISWAS (1930 — 66) Combat Series S/d in English, l.r. Pen & Ink, 1963 55 x 76 cm. (21.7 x 29.9”)