Osian's Auction Catalogue Masterpieces and Museum-Quality III | March 2004

104 OSIAN’S 45 ARPANA CAUR (b. 1954 / New Delhi) Body is Just a Garment Series S/d in English l.r. & inscribed on verso Oil on canvas, 1991 173.9 x 180.5 cm (68.5 x 71.1 in) OSIANs S.I.R. ANALYSIS [1996–2003] Present Estimate 71.86 Previous Average 40.09 Previous Highs 146.20 [Sa.com/01.12.00; The Body is Just a Garment] 142.11 [Ch.Lon/02.06.98; oil on canvas, 1984] Auction Average 289.84 “The sight, one day, of an old Sikh tailor stitching women’s sari blouses in a ramshackle tin shed shop prompted her to paint him. Repeatedly, she returned to this image – of an old man spinning out sexy garments for nameless warm bodies. The Body is Just a Garment (1990-93) – the oft-repeated image of the weaver Kabir, who sang of the original weaver – became the recurrent motif in the series… Arpana repeatedly uses the symbol of the embroidered cloth to suggest several interrelated issues – the process of socialization of the young girl and the ‘veiling’ of her body, the cloth as garment and winding sheet, and finally, as a symbol of the transience of life itself.” (Gayatri Sinha, in ‘Arpana Caur: Confronting Womanhood’, rpt. in Marg. Vol. 48, No. 2, December 1996 ; pp.59-60.) Rs. 350,000 – 425,000 US$ 7,800 – 9,450 GB£ 4,250 – 5,200