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

145 THE MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY SERIES 104 Biren DE [b . 1926, Faridpur, present-day Bangladesh] Kathakali Dancer S/d in English t.l. & verso Oil on canvas, 1963 91.5 x 101.5 cm (36.0 x 40.0 in) Rs. 600,000 – 700,000 $ 12,950 – 15,100 £ 7,100 – 8,275 ‘The paintings are of stylized figures in a compressed space. The figures and the environment are bound together by a strong grid of black lines, the colours 103 Biren DE [b . 1926, Faridpur, present-day Bangladesh] Patriach S/d in English t.r. Oil on canvas, 1954 75.4 x 54.0 cm (29.7 x 21.3 in) Rs. 500,000 – 600,000 $ 10,800 – 12,950 £ 5,925 – 7,100 ‘In Patriarch Mr. Biren De shows himself a painter of great depth of remarkable originality, for in this astonishing composition painted in a few subdued colours he has created a work of almost sacred evocation of great beauty.’ - Dr. Charles Fabri, in The Statesman, December 1952. which are militant and cannot be ignored. They are either somber or luminous; the figures are sharply modeled and have a peglike three-dimensionality. They seem rooted in an architectural arrangement and the space around them is highly concentrated space…The colours are flat in the background, or in the accessories, but graded in the human forms. Each part of the figures is distinct and to a certain degree a symbol of itself, yet it is united and belongs to a whole.’ – Jaya Appasamy, rpt. in Biren De: as seen by 5 contemporaries. 1975.