Osian's Auction Catalogue Select Masterpieces of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | June 2009

121 56 Nataraj Sharma (b.1958) Roadmaker Oil, acrylic and charcoal on paper and canvas pasted on masonite board, 1995 – 1998 30.8 x 57.2 in (78.4 x 145.2 cm) Inscribed in English ‘NATARAJ, ROADMAKER, OCT- 95- MAY 96- JAN 98, OIL, ACRYLIC AND CHARCOAL ON PAPER AND CANVAS, Year: 2004’ on verso of board INR 1,600,000 – 2,000,000 USD 33,330 – 41,670 “Before I came to Vadodara, I lived in Bangalore where I did a lot of figurative, urban images. Moving to the outskirts of this city in western India, I was confronted with a primal, elemental landscape dotted by factories that looked extremely desolate in the summer. The world might be at the forefront of technology but for us these outdated factories and chunky machines are an everyday reality. I am not here to make moralistic statements about our oil-stained and garbage strewn landscapes. I want to seek the peculiar beauty of these desolate structures. Their presence is comforting.” – Nataraj Sharma, rpt. in Real in Realism , ExC, Vadehra Art Gallery, 2002. “…human protagonists were virtually eliminated by Nataraj. His works were filled with images of violated, distorted and confused landscapes – denatured under the intrusion of primitive but rapacious industry. Old fashioned machines and tools wounded the terrain in these paintings, yet in the process, they assumed, almost imperceptibly, the traits of the people who used them.” – Marta Jakimowicz-Karle, rpt. in ‘The Mechanics of Painting’, Art India Magazine, Vol. IV, Issue 3, July-Sept 1999. “A ground, a landscape. A foreground viewed from the top, the far horizon seen through the eyes of a low flying bird. At this distance, and with this distancing, the earth reveals herself. In these drylands, without the cosmetic cover of vegetation, I see the earth’s face, twisting and turning, ancient and awesome. I see the colours of the earth-areas of dazzling brightness and diffused shadows. Fences, like rows of matchsticks, transform the earth into property. On Sama Road (Vadodara) a familiar upheaval goes on. Gouged up earth, the earth’s innards lie exposed. Looking down into the trenches, I see large drainage pipes, hard and cylindrical, embraced by sinuous electric cables. I take a turn to the right and pass through some desperate shanties before falling upon a magnificent, convoluted vision. A wasteland ravaged and desolate. An open view through to the horizon. Eroded gullies and a deep cleft filled with stagnant water. This whole rough and tumbled ground criss- crossed by a network of trembling footpaths.” – Nataraj Sharma, rpt. in Nataraj: Recent Works 1994-96 , ExC