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

52 29 K.G. Subramanyan (b.1924) Untitled Signed in tamil, l.l. Oil on canvas, c.1965 24.0 x 30.3 in (61.0 x 76.5 cm) INR 2,400,000 – 3,000,000 USD 60,000 – 75,000 28 N.S. Bendre (1910 – 1992) Study for Rashtrapati Bhavan Mural S/d in English ‘Bendre 80’ on Verso Gouache on paper pasted on board, 1946 (signed later in 1980) 34.1 x 87.4 in (86.5 x 222.0 cm) INR 2,400,000 – 3,200,000 USD 60,000 – 80,000 ‘From his Indore school background, Bendre had learnt the use of gouache or opaque water colour, to give special quality to the genre of landscape painting. Ratan Parimoo has suggested it was a way of coming to terms with the quality of Indian sunshine. It is an attractive idea; gouache is obviously conducive to the nuances of light in India-opaque water colour or gum/glue tempera is the medium in which most Indian painting on paper, and even on walls, has been executed. Gouache remained a favourite medium of Bendre’s and he encouraged his students to use it with a light hand.’ – Nilima Sheikh rpt. in Contemporary Art in Baroda Tulika 1997; p72.