Osian's Auction Catalogue Creative India Series 1 Bengal | December 2011

R aMkinkaR b aij 25 May 1906 – 2 August 1980 Bust of Ira Vakil (nee Chaudhuri) Plaster of Paris on cement pedestal, 1947 12.2 x 16.5 x 9.4 in (31.0 x 28.0 x 24.0 cm) with pedestal: 16.5 x 16.5 x 9.4 in (42.0 x 28.0 x 24.0 cm) Condition Minor pitting at some places Provenance Acquired from Bela Sen, widow of Prabhash Sen, close friend and colleague of Ramkinkar Baij. ` 3,000,000 – 4,500,000 US$ 60,000 – 90,000 76 1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1910 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 2000 “Individual as Ramkinkar’s painting is, and full of variety, his sculpture is even more distinctive. It makes him, without controversy, the first major figure in modern Indian sculpture. Sculptors before his time were largely professionals tied to the strings of patronage; however original and competent some of them were, they were too constrained by the patron’s taste and specifications. So Ramkinkar was probably the first sculptor on the Indian art scene whom you can designate a ‘creative sculptor’; he sculpted for his own pleasure and did not cater to a patron’s whims. In fact, his few attempts at doing commissioned works brought him close to disaster; he had to leave them to be completed by assistants...His brilliant portraits - heads and busts - some of the most dynamic in recent times, were not commissioned; he did them because he liked the subject for one reason or the other. Exposed as he was, to the works of Rodin and Epstein, he showed a greater range of formal invention, and when he painted portraits he transformed each sitter into a special icon with a distinct emotional aura. One has only to compare his portrait heads of Ganguly Moshai, Preet Pande, Meera Chatterjee, Madhura Singh, Ira Vakil (Lot 76) and Rabindranath... we will not easily again come upon another artist of comparable genius or character, a man who had enormous gifts but never aired them, who was singleminded in his work but treated results with philosophic unconcern. He did not belong to a world that resounds with the squabble for success, fame and money. He was singularly unworldly and capricious, lived like an ascetic and had no desire for creature comforts, and his great zest for life was satisfied with the free gifts of nature - like the smell of the earth and the light of the sky and the vision of an animated nature...” [K.G. Subramanyan, rpt. in Prasad, Devi [2007]. Ramkinkar Vaij: Sculptures. New Delhi: Tulika Books in association with Kotak; pp.199-200.] Illustrative Reference Prasad, Devi [2007]. Ramkinkar Vaij: Sculptures. New Delhi: Tulika Books in association with Kotak; p.214 Item 103 [Refers to Lot 76 Bust of Ira Vakil (nee Chaudhuri)] This Artwork may be required to be lent for the forthcoming Retrospective Exhibition (December 2011) of Ramkinkar Baij at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Creative India BENGAL | Rabindranath Tagore & Santiniketan 177 176 An Important Bust