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

167 THE MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY SERIES 122 Vivan SUNDARAM [b . 1943, Simla, Himachal Pradesh] The Carpenter & his Wife S/d & titled on verso Oil on canvas, 1989 110.5 x 136.0 cm (43.5 x 53.5 in) Rs. 1,000,000 – 1,250,000 $ 21,600 – 27,000 £ 11,825 – 14,800 Please refer to Vivan Sundaram . Shridharani / Chemould Gallery 1990 ExC. for B/w illustration of Lot 122 . ‘Vivan sets up a process of excavation. Decipherment, reenactment and rendering, both for oneself and for the viewer…. What is blocked from view, what is erased, rubbed, washed over with veils of paint… becomes a metaphor, both of memory and of excavation simultaneously. Then Vivan ornaments the painted surface and makes the metaphors and the ‘descriptions’ thick if I might put it like that. This ornamentation is significant… to the act of painting.’ – Anuradha Kapur, rpt. in Vivan Sundaram. Sridharini Gallery 1990 ExC.