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

83 PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK 44 NANDALAL BOSE (1882 - 1966) National Art Treasure Indra & Airavata Signed in Bengali, l.r. Tempera on Japanese Golden Board, early 1940s 82.4 x 35.1 cm. (32.4 x 13.8”) Rs. 750,000 - 900,000 Non-Exportable Item “ Whereas Upanishads and other Indian doctrines conditioned his mind to evolve his theoretical concepts, the artistic traditions of Ajanta and miniature paintings, tinged with Far eastern- specially Chinese and Japanese technique- constituted the essential ingredients of that mature art style…This style emphasizes traditional, decorative, ornamental, narrative elements and their improvisations, visually manifested through the linear rhythm, movement, structure and form, by and large, sombre colours having typical oriental flavour. Being an undisputed master of the line, he emphasized: ‘In a painting life-movement consists in that line which pulsates with utmost life: the line which is none other than its very pulse of life, which, by itself, renders unity, completeness, truth and character to the work.’ ” (L.P.Sihare, in Nandalal Bose: His Aesthetic Percepts & Style, a few Problems, rpt. in NGMA Centenary ExC. 1982 . p35 ). “ Pursuing the analysis further, but keeping in mind the same truth that creation is an unfolding away from, and not a harking back to, the origin, it has seemed to me that the various decorative designs may claim as their fundamental basis are the forms of the Buddhist symbols for the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and sky… Third element: Fire. The symbol is a cone, or triangle, standing on its base, point upwards. This represents the shape of an undistributed flame. Its interaction with air results in waves and eddies; but as fire, unlike water, is devoid of weight, the lines of these forms have an upward tendency.” (Nandalal Bose, in Elemental Origins of Decorative Forms, rpt. in NGMA Centenary ExC. 1982 . pp40-1).