Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces and Museum Quality Series | October 2004

130 OSIAN ’ s–CONNOISSEURS OF ART 90 K.G. SUBRAMANYAN [b .1924, Kuthuparamba, Kerala] Still Life with Fruit Signed in Bengali l.r. Mixed media on board, 1963 60.5 x 80.2 cm (23.8 x 31.6 in) Rs. 500,000 – 600,000 $ 10,800 – 12,950 £ 5,925 – 7,100 ‘Beginning with a careful, almost realistic approach, Subramanyan moved from the 1960’s towards a formal simplicity. In his still-lifes executed with brilliance and facility one can detect an affinity with the Post-Cubist still-lifes of Braque. In some still-lifes, he emphasizes geometric struc- tures to keep the design intact. The pictures of this period are bolder and firmer than anything attempted earlier.’ – Pran Nath Mago, rpt. in New Delhi : NBT 2000; p158. 91 Jyoti BHATT [b . 1934, Bhavnagar, Gujarat] Woman S/d in Gujarati c.c. Gouache on paper, 1954 43.5 x 32.5 cm (17.1 x 12.8 in) Rs. 100,000 – 175,000 $ 2, 150 – 3,800 £ 1,175 – 2,075 ‘The deployment of traditional Indian crafts-manly motifs and methods is a major factor in Jyoti Bhatt’s works on show, a touch stone providing models of perfec- tion in language and skill. But more importantly, these function as a critical sounding board, so as to reflect upon the paradoxes and acute ironies in our modernity experiences. The contemporen- ity that he achieves is in this very problemization, or in other words, is to be located within the very relevance of the choices and in the very specificity of the pictorial visualizations…The apparent decorativeness of Jyoti Bhatt’s works is a strategic decep- tion. The compositeness and hybridity of the imagery, the very complexity in reading the formal extravaganza and its redundancy makes sense only after getting en- ticed into the sheer visual delight in discovering the myriad visual details.’ – Shivaji K.Panikar, rpt. in Cymroza Art Gallery 1997-98 Annual ; pp125-7.