Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

120 70 g opal S anyal (1933 – 2006) Untitled Brush, pen and ink on paper pasted on paper, 1977 S/d in English ‘Gopal 77’ l.l. 20.9 x 27.6 in (53.0 x 70.2 cm) INR 300,000 – 450,000 US$ 6,250 – 9,380 “In the style of his drawings he is near to Nikhil Biswas. The same images, however, mean different things. To Nikhil the crucifixion is an expression of violence while to Gopal it means the utter hopelessness of an irrevocable situation. To Nikhil the owl is a sinister bird but to Gopal it is a bird terrified by the absolute darkness. To Nikhil the horse is the very image of vigour while to Gopal it is an animal that symbolizes endurance. One could go on with such comparisons. Apparently later pictures from Bengal were influenced by Gopal’s morbidity and chose to be surrealist or fantastic painters due to the impact of his paintings. In his recent drawings, which have not been exhibited, one sees people congregating to commemorate some ritual. They still seem to have emaciated hands and feet, but not the vacant lost looks of his figures in earlier works.” – Sandip Sarkar, rpt. in LKC 22, September 1976, p.20.