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

25 6 Bikash Bhattacharjee (1940 –2006) Prostitute series Oil on canvas, 1987 Signed in English ‘BIKASH’ l.r. 41.7 x 39.7 in (106.0 x 101.0 cm) INR 3,600,000 – 4,500,000 USD 75,000 – 93,750 “Most of the female presences in Bhattacharjee’s painting exude various shades of sensuality… Whereas the married woman is idealised as a mother, direct sexuality belongs to regions far from home. It is observed in the self-deceptive aberrations resulting from misused freedom of affluent girls or in women of red light areas. The latter are treated with understanding, closeness and compassion. The artist pities them knowing that their condition was not willingly chosen. Hence, he strives to reveal their humaneness upheld despite the profession or even through it…The ordinary, often vulgar fact of prostitutes waiting for customers becomes symbolic of forlorn women’s yearning for love…The prostitute as a human being, used and left behind, yet, giving herself – heart and body – stands for our expectation of loving response and turns into a symbol of women as such.” – Marta Jakimowicz-Karle, rpt. in Bikash Bhattacharjee , Kala Yatra, 1991, p35.