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

M anu P aRekh b. 5 November 1939 Growth Oil on canvas, 1970 S/d in English ‘Manu Parekh 70’ l.l. and signed in English ‘Manu Parekh’ on verso 33.5 x 33.5 in (85.2 x 85.2 cm) Condition Tear mended l.r. Provenance Private Collection, New Delhi ` 800,000 – 1,200,000 US$ 16,000 – 24,000 124 1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1910 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1980 1990 1995 2000 2005 “He took to oil during 1969-70. A concept in terms of mass and volume with a strong three-dimensional suggestion came to haunt him. The linear structure got subdued, and the form, conceived essentially in colour, came to be defined more forcefully. The palette was a contrasting one, excelling in reds, white and purple- blue... Formally, there was again the suggestion of a head, a face, a torso, but there was something more than this; a new element of much consequence...was emerging; a biogenetic proliferation of form drawing the physical attributes from man, nature, and plant plus fecund imagination...The human, vegetal and animal elements intermingle and materialise as one single life force.” [Krishnan, S.A. [1979]. Manu Parekh - An Interpretation of Biogenetic Imagery. New Delhi: [Essay.JOU] Lalit Kala Contemporary No.27; pp.11-12] “Calcutta - the Mahanagar - seems to have had a considerable influence on Manu Parekh both as an artist and as a man. The teeming formal complex of his paintings may have sprung from the overpopulous metropolis. The city’s organic aspects of life - and Manu was a witness to this day in and day after for years from a fifth floor terrace: views of the pile up of houses, the constant happenings in the courtyards and backyards, the daily occurences, both routine and intimate, regardless of the stranger, and the perpetual consort of man and woman. Manu confesses to an awakening of passion and sensuousness and fullness of life. He had the renewed realisation of man as the result of an organic order and vitality of life.” [Krishnan, S.A. [1979]. Manu Parekh - An Interpretation of Biogenetic Imagery. New Delhi: [Essay.JOU] Lalit Kala Contemporary No.27; pp.11-12] Illustrative Reference Farooqi, Anis [Director, NGMA] [1989]. Catalogue of Collections, Volume 1: National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art (Vol. 1); p.309, Acc. No.2803 [Manu Parekh, Growth, c.1970] Krishnan, S.A. [1979]. Manu Parekh - An Interpretation of Biogenetic Imagery. New Delhi: [Essay.JOU] Lalit Kala Contemporary No.27; pp.11-12 [Growth, 1970] 263 262 Creative India BENGAL | Calcutta and Modernism 1960 – 1995