Osian's Auction Catalogue Forty Masterpieces | March 2003

“Two worlds exist before me – the intimate world and the world that is not so. I discover and discover the unknown from both – that is, I discover the new for us, new moods, new rhythms. I think about them, I dream about them, I play with them in my mind and at last when I want to tell others about them I do that through the language I know best. Deep at heart I always feel sad – as Death constantly reminds me that I have to leave this eternally changing wonderful world and be deprived of an opportunity to re-discover the visual world. Hence the joyful moments of my artistic visual discoveries always merge with sorrows and each of my works of art becomes sadly joyous. I think the modern world has freed art from the bondage of traditionalism and regionalism. Throughout the world artists set out for the unknown and the new – I like this eternal quest.” (Sanat Kar, reprinted in Drawings by Fourteen Contemporary Artists of Bengal . Calcutta 1970; n.p.) Lot 19 represents a very rare early work by the artist. Paintings of this period have rarely, if at all, been seen by the recent collecting public. Previous page Untitled S/d in English, t.l. Oil on canvas, 1959 87.0 x 51.8 cm [34.3 x 20.4 in] Provenance Acquired from the Artist [Santiniketan] by a private dealer in New Delhi, thereafter consigned to Osian’s Rs. 300,000 – 400,000 $ 6,300 – 8,300 £ 3,800 – 5,000 _ 5,800 – 7,700 “Biren’s ideas about nature, the spirit of man and Biren’s comprehension of the mystery of life seem to become fused in this mature, full period. He removed a great deal of the structural apparatus thus exploring bravely the sense of space. His paintings became a structure of full strokes (and movement) of colour in space. Each stroke is a search for significance and resembles a kind of meteoring memory…These new works, the production of the past year, are further resolutions of the same principle of composition. Landscape and men become one. Little complexes of impasto, burnished over with paint, give the bold brushstrokes a sense of buoyancy. Great volumes of cloud and mist billow over and form the backdrop to these ideographs. There is the impression of movement, and yet there is stillness. The strokes are solid – built like bars of music spanning sensation. One can imagine the Santhal landscape translated into these aggregate symbols… But one can also imagine the sense of pilgrimage and of deliverance in the cascade of forms sliding past great arenas of silence.” (Richard Bartolomew, in Biren De: Kunika Art Centre 1961 ExC.) Overleaf Conjunction S/d in English, l.l. Oil on canvas, 1961 76.0 x 54.8 cm [29.9 x 21.6 in] Provenance The Artist, New Delhi Rs. 500,000 – 600,000 $ 10,400 – 12,500 £ 6,300 – 7,500 _ 9,600 – 11,500 64 65 19 20 SANAT KAR [b.1935/ West Bengal] BIREN DE [b.1926/ Faridpur, Bengal, present-day Bangladesh] Ikebana Series Tempera on board, late 1980s Dreamers Tempera on canvas, 1982 HT.ND/ 28.11.1999 Lot 198 Widows Oil on canvas, 1957 67.0 x 106.0 cm HT.Mum/ 15.11.1997 Lot 66 The Seer Oil on canvas, 1958 60.0 x 76.0 cm HT.ND/ 28.11.1999 Lot 213 Composition Oil on canvas, 1958 60.0 x 75.0 cm The transformation of the human figures into abstract symbolism is clearly evident during the late 1950s/early 1960s.