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

76 OSIAN ’ s–CONNOISSEURS OF ART 46 Ramkinkar BAIJ [1910-1980/ b .Jugipada, Bankura, West Bengal] Santhal Family Bronze The work has been cast after the death of Ramkinkar Baij from his original maquette. 31.5 x 23.0 x 13.5 cm (12.4 x 9.1 x 5.3 in) Rs. 400,000 – 500,000 $ 8,650 – 10,800 £ 4,725 – 5,925 ‘Ramkinker’s works have a dual nature, firstly a structural core which is interior and organic and shows itself in the organization of forms. And secondly an expressionistic quality which is baroque, buoyant and flowering. There is a certain joyousness in his work which one becomes aware of… there is great affirmation of life, of youth, of nature. For him art was not merely work but play. One feels this delight in the running movement of his contours; through all his figures and groups one feels the breath of open spaces, of sap of blossoming. His surfaces with their multitudinous thrusts, rugged textures and crevices are related… to the elemental products of nature. The light falls on them not to be reflected but to be absorbed as it would be on a thick jungle of leaves or in rocks of laterite.’ Jaya Appasamy, rpt. in LKC 30 September 1980; p40. From the minor to the monumental, 1940-70s