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

35 11 Biren De (b.1926) The Moment Oil on canvas, 1967 S/d in English ‘Biren de 67’ l.l. 53 x 42.1 in (134.6 x 107.0 cm) Inscribed in English ‘THE MOMENT- May 67. BIREN DE’ on verso Condition Minor paint loss c.l., stable cracks at some places INR 2,400,000 – 3,000,000 USD 50,000 – 62,500 ‘These symbols or shapes which are mainly erotic – are in fact shorn of eroticism, they are almost scientific hieroglyphs. Painted on a monumental scale they fill the space with their brooding presence.Texture is mostly abandoned for a smoky application of colour. The colour is vibrant and rich with large areas of black or ‘dark’ and with occasional areas of purple or green. The sensuousness of the subject is reduced to a kind of solid torpor, the great principles of Yin and Yang become some strange resonant diagram that seems to beat with the pulse beat of the earth. Biren’s recent work seeks the unity of these and other fundamental shapes.’ - Jaya Appaswamy rpt. in Biren De as seen by 5 contemporaries 1972 rpt. from LKC 1967.