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

134 OSIAN’S “I want my work to be ambiguous. I would like it to appear to me every morning as a new configuration. Also I want to straddle the visible and the abstract with their forms now becoming recognisable., now going into hiding. I think that this balancing of the abstract with the objective is one of the most significant characteristics of the traditional art of my country – like in its temples which are undoubtedly impressive as abstract heaps of stone, but also bristle with mythology and representational detail at second glance. This is where I get into contact with it. I want my work also to live in such twilight zone of sensibility, although the ingredients I put into it are not what they used to be, but are of this time.’” (K.G. Subramanyan, from Introduction of Gallery Navina EXC. New York 1967.) Please refer to colour illustration of Ochre Room on p.135, rpt. in K.G. Subramanyan – A Retrospective . NGMA: New Delhi 2003. Man with Cocks Oil on board, 1957 Still Life with Bottle Oil on canvas, 1962 Windows II Oil on plywood, 1965 Radharani Oil on acrylic sheet, 1981 Select works by K.G. Subramanyam, 1957–81