Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | January 2008

123 88 Nikhil Biswas (1930 - 1966) Clown and the Moon S/d in English ‘Nikhil 1961’ l.l. Gouache on paper, 1961 39.0 x 29.5 in (99.0 x 75.0 cm) Provenance Mukund & Neerja Lath Collection INR 720,000 – 900,000 USD 18,000 – 22,500 Literary Reference Reference to a similar work in: Datta, Ella. ‘Nikhil Biswas: Clowns and Martyrs.’ Art Heritage, Vol. 8, 1988 - 89; pp. 105 – 111. ‘The late Nikhil Biswas reacted in a similar way to the human situation. He clothed his contemporary themes in allegorical myths of suffering and force and the search for light as represented by Christ, the bull, the horse and the clown. The violence of his imagination and execution exclude all compassion. But his protest was equally an affirmation of human values. He expressed it in the simplest and most direct way possible (his chief tools were Indian ink, pen and brush and he used them with fiendish energy’. Jaya Appasamy rpt. Lalit Kala Contemporary, Vol. 17, 1974; p. 12.