Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

129 The Masterpieces SerieS 79 i Sha M ahaMMaD (b.1933) Destruction Oil on canvas, 1967 S/d in English ‘Isha Md 1967’ l.r. 51.6 x 71.4 in (131.0 x 181.5 cm) Condition Previously Restored. Edges frayed. Flaking and cracks on paint layer along the edges INR 800,000 – 1,200,000 US$ 16,670 – 25,000 “Like many of his contemporaries, Isha Mahammad started his artistic career with a brain-load of artistic ideas mostly of Parisian origin…He realised soon enough the extent of borrowed elements in his art and his tour to Germany, London and Paris in 1968 allowed him closer access to European modernism… Back home he began…to change his style and technique… His increasing dependence on his skill to draw well had brought about a synthesis in his art almost like a combination of Atul Bose and Nikhil Biswas... By giving up his earlier preoccupation with modern imagery of western origin, he has thus been able to delve deep into his past to paint characters to unfold his story, in thoughtfully designed settings and with a believable presence by his life-like rendering of the chosen subject. Visual charm of naturalism, coupled with didactic appeal of interpretive realism, has enriched his paintings of the last two decades and hold promises of further development along the same way.” – Arun Ghose, rpt. in BAAC Retrospective 1956-99 , ExC, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta, 1999.