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

EXPERIMENTS & EXPRESSIONISM 171 155 KRISHEN KHANNA (b.1925) Bird attacking Man S/d in English, l.c. Charcoal & Pencil on paper, c.1986 37.0 x 51.0 cm. (14.6 x 20.1”) Rs. 50,000 – 75,000 $ 1,065 – 1,595 154 SUDHIR PATWARDHAN (b.1949) Station Initials in English, l.l. Conte on paper, 1978 48.0 x 61.2 cm. (18.9 x 24.1”) Rs. 75,000 - 125,000 $ 1,595 - 2,660 “ He (Sudhir) is able to establish an equation of dignity with his proletarian characters, and a sense of solidarity thereby. This is reinforced by the physicality of the figures, their graspable quality. This physicality, distinct from robustness, stands also for a capacity to survive while the gaze and gestures indicate the gravity of the act of survival. The figures, then, reserved and self-contained, reject sentimental identification. But they invite complete sympathy. This is important. By avoiding sentiment, idealisation and irony, Sudhir overcomes, in fact, the predictable political solution to the human figure in art.” (Geeta Kapur, rpt. in JAG ExC . 1979 ).