Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

79 The Masterpieces SerieS 40 A kBAr p AdAmsee (b.1928) Christ Oil on canvas, 1953 S/d in English ‘Padamsee 53’ l.l. 31.9 x 15.9 in (80.2 x 39.5 cm) Provenance THE OSIAN’s COLLECTION. Acquired from the Christie’s (New York) Auction in September 2005. INR 8,400,000 – 12,600,000 US$ 175,000 – 262,500 Ilustrated Reference E. de’Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Art Heritage, ExC, 1980, p.17 “Representations of Jesus surface frequently in the work of Akbar Padamsee. Believing strongly that the conception of ‘form without ache are futile’, the solitary Jesus perfectly embodies the sense of suffering while preserving a promise of transcendence. In his use of heavy delineated outlines, Padamsee turns the rigidly structured painting into a metaphor for the isolation and anguish of Christ” (E. de’Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Art Heritage, ExC, 1980). 41 A njoLie e LA m enon (b. 1940) Nude with Cats Oil on board (masonite), 1983 S/d in English ‘Anjolie Ela Menon 83’ t.r. 23.9 x 48.0 in (60.8 x 122.0 cm) Provenance THE OSIAN’s COLLECTION. INR 3,200,000 – 4,800,000 US$ 66,670 – 100,000 “I think ‘symbols’ is perhaps too big a word for the small things that insinuate themselves into my canvases. ‘Symbol’ is a critic’s word, surely. The threads, the necklaces, the kites, the little animals or the draped cloth, transparent or opaque – these are the accoutrements and trappings that accompany the figure in my work. These are no conscious attempts at symbolism, though much has been written about the optimism of he kites or the sadness of sailing boats and so on. Sometimes it is a mere ornamentation, the essentially feminine need to embellish or embroider, at other times it is the need to accent or to focus on the colour for purely painterly reasons such as perspective or tension.” – Anjolie Ela Menon, rpt. in Anjolie Ela Menon: Paintings in Private Collections , Isana Murti, Ravi Dayal Publishers, New Delhi, 1995, p.18. “By the end of the 1970s and the early 80s the paintings began to acquire an allegorical, narrative quality, but the myths and ballads were of Anjolie’s own making, a strange amalgam of East and West. What was once random symbolism coalesced around the nude with overtones of sexual specificity. The nudes of the late 1970s exude an authenticity and spontaneity that was hesitant and tentative till then. The diaphanously clad women, the animals, birds and reptiles, the many persons who inhabit and impinge, this is a world of the artist’s subterranean existence, a world that has been crafted painstakingly by Anjolie. These myths, supported by a complex imagery, are distilled from a highly individual subconscious and do not relate to the collective myth of any specific group in an acceptable or recognizable manner.” – Isana Murti, ‘Through the Patina’, in Anjolie Ela Menon: Paintings in Private Collections , Isana Murti, Ravi Dayal Publishers, New Delhi 1995, p.35. Living in Paris during the 1950s, the artist was exposed to the work of Fauvist painter Georges Rouault. Influenced by the heavy use of black outline in Rouault’s oeuvre, Padamsee produced a small series of paintings employing this technique. Lot 40 is one of the finest examples of this style.