Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

164 104 P rokaSh k arMakar (b.1933) Untitled Acrylic on canvas, 1996 Signed in Bengali ‘Prokash’ and dated in English ‘96’ l.r. 35.2 x 31.3 in (89.5 x 79.6 cm) INR 500,000 – 750,000 US$ 10,420 – 15,630 105 S urenDran n air (b.1956) Theatre of Rhetoric Rituals Monoprint on paper, 1996 S/d in English ‘Surendran 96’ l.r. 60.3 x 46.7 in (153.2 x 118.5 cm) Provenance THE OSIAN’s COLLECTION INR 1,200,000 – 1,800,000 US$ 25,000 – 37,500 106 M anu P arekh (b.1939) Untitled Each Mixed media on handmade paper (pasted on cloth, pasted on board), 1996 i. S/d in English ‘Manu Parekh 96’ l.l. 29.8 x 23.1 in (74.9 x 60.0 cm) ii. S/d in English ‘Manu Parekh 96’ l.r. 29.8 x 23.9 in (75.0 x 59.9) iii. S/d in English ‘Manu Parekh 96’ c.r. 30.3 x 23.1 in (76.6 x 60.0) iv. S/d in English ‘Manu Parekh ‘96’ l.r. 29.1 x 23.1 in (75.4 x 60.0) Provenance THE OSIAN’s COLLECTION INR 1,200,000 – 1,800,000 US$ 25,000 – 37,500 (Set of 4) “Manu Parekh’s paintings capture the primordial energy of organic forms. His landscapes and still lifes are imbued with an underlying sexuality; .…….The artist has displayed a fondness for diverse materials. In the early 90s, he began painting on rice paper. His 1998 exhibition, ‘Ritual Oblations’, was inspired by the intense colour, glitter, and shine of materials found in small bazaars around the places of worship. Parekh has also used board and cement in a 1996 series on violence, supplying the works with a graffiti effect.” – Amrita Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Indian Artists, India Book House, Mumbai, 2005, p.144. “He fastidiously picks at the icon even as he decontextualizes it, and renders it as both fixed and changeable paradigm in his field of play. Surendran’s language plays upon the religious and the popular icon. Liberally sprinkled with visual and literary puns the icon becomes a surrealist object of fancy, which can pleasure or maim the body, or render it a field for the enactment of puns… Between the known and the new, Nair posits a tantalizing and provocative argument through an extraordinarily developed lexicon of images.” Gayatri Sinha, rpt. in Combine—Voices for the New Century, National Gallery of Modern Art, ExC, 2000. “Karmakar had always wanted his imagination to stir his skill. His paintings from the outset of his career have been a contemplation of life, a rendering of experience in artistic terms… Men and women are shown in their ulnerability, and their capability to struggle to tragic heights. Human suffering is the central theme, but it is never glorified…Women, men, animal, birds and inanimate objects appear in motion, or writhe in agony on the canvas. They are full of personal peculiarities and gestures… Vultures appeared to prey on pretty women. Profound and bright imageries dominate his works of this period… The composition of each painting is well balanced and colours aflame with a strange rawness.” – Sandip Sarkar, rpt. in Prokash Karmakar, Galerie 88 ExC 2002.