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

65 28 Bharti Kher (b.1969) Seeing SomeThings Better Mixed media on board, 2004 S/d in English ‘Bharti Kher 2004’ on verso 48.2 x 47.9 in (122.5 x 121.8 cm) Titled ‘Seeing some Things better’ on verso INR 4,000,000 – 5,000,000 USD 83,330 – 104,170 “Kher plays on the role of the bindi in contemporary art. Mass-produced stick-on bindis are the low-brow versions of the Bindu with a capital B, a conceptually loaded aesthetic and spatial device, valorized and self- Orientalized by modern Indian artists and architects. Kher’s use of pedestrian bindis is an intellectual and cultural inversion of the mythology of the modern Bindu. By repeating the bindi endlessly and using it in subversive ways of cover surfaces that range from rexine carpets and broken cups to fiberglass animals and hybrids, Kher punctures the transcendent symbolism of the hallowed Bindu. Kher’s bindi compositions make visible the dialectic of desire and consummation.” – Kanu Kartik Agarwal, rpt. in Bharti Kher , ExC, GallerySke and Nature Morte, 2006, p10.