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

THE PASSIONATE DETACHMENT 204 201 JAI ZHAROTIA (b.1945) a. Dancing woman S/d in English, l.r. Watercolour on paper, 1984 38 x 28.9 cm. (15.0 x 11.4”) b. Acrobat S/d in English, l.r./l.l. Watercolour on paper, 1985 37.3 x 28.4 cm. (14.7 x 11.2”) Rs. 65,000 – 85,000 $ 1,385 – 1,810 (Set of 2) “A playful blend of reality, fantasy and mysticism lends Jai Zharotia’s paintings a dreamy but piercing representation of past present and even eternal. The viewer, as a result, is astonished at the inseparability of impulse and order, play and purpose, real and ideal in all that he creates. …The acutal proportions through simplification and exaggeration blur the distinction between the real world and the world of imagined forms-vigorous, dynamic tensions, as a result, are born. A complex balance, too, is achieved between plains and patterns, between rest and movement, between sombre colours and bright hues. His athletic sinuous figures suggest fluidity and rhythmic flow heightened by the opalesque background of aqueous tonality.” (Kiran Modi, rpt. in Watercolours ExC. 1984 ). “ I have a firm belief that mystery cannot be solved. Whenever I tried to solve it, I became part of it; I became stranger to myself and I witnessed a happening. And projection of this happening is my art. Images come and go as I breathe. These images are not bound by physical world; they are free to move wherever they desire; they dance up and down, here and there, dissolve into each other and sometimes even disappear. The eternal movement of the cosmic world creates mysteries and riddles which always baffle and haunt me. …I normally use simple water colour inks with pen or brush. I try to create dark tones and overlapping tones. In the process very special texture and effects come forth.” (Jai Zharotia, 1986). 202 JAI ZHAROTIA (b.1945) Woman besides Clown Watercolour on paper, late 1980s 51.9 x 35.7 cm. (20.4 x 14.0”) Rs. 75,000 - 100,000 $ 1,595 - 2,130 a b