Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

84 “To be quite honest, I feel an intense need to eschew unfelt experiences of art and beliefs, both of the past and present. And, by the past I mean that singular inheritance of the modern Indian artists. I have started thinking of everything and in great detail, in the hope that I might find out the validity of many things I have known and learnt so far. Take Geometry for example – the concept of geometry that we have taken from the West. I have been greatly influenced by Victor Vasarely and Antonio Tapies.” – Dhanraj Bhagat, LKC 12 & 13, April-September 1971, p.21. “Again the cactus-like forms are reflections of the earliest type of life, life struggling to be, to fructify, in the wilderness. Bhagat never aims at facile beauty, but at bristling, difficult recapitulations of ideas. The ideas that he relies on are, to go by their captions, taken from Indian preoccupations, from the magical rite. The mythic, cryptic propensity however is, as said above, married to later modern concepts.” – S. K. Krishnan, rpt. in LKC 27, April 1979, p.19. 44 d hanraj B hagat (1917 – 1988) Monarch Series Carved wood with copper pieces and nails, 1965 17.7 x 10.3 x 6.8in (45.0 x 26.1 x 17.5 cm) Condition Minor cracks on the main object and few losses present. Dust present all over INR 520,000 – 780,000 US$ 10,830 – 16,250