Osian's Auction Catalogue The Osianama Series |February 2013

132 1969 ‘The memories of his early struggles, the acrid air of a choked city heaving under the burden of its own discontent, the debilitated masses of suffering humanity that surged all around him, caused him to react with violence and anger. Thus emerged, from the mid 1960s onwards for a period of nearly twenty years, a series of images of seething, struggling humanity oppressed by an unfeeling, ruthless establishment.’ – Paula Sengupta rpt. in Manifestations III , DAG ExC 2005. 68 Sajal Roy b. 6 April 1935 Untitled Oil on canvas, 1969 S/d in English ‘Sajal 69’ t.l. 23.6 x 39.5 in (59.9 x 100.3 cm) Provenance Private New Delhi-based Collection ` 400,000 – 800,000 US$ 7,270 – 14,540 GBP 5,000 – 10,000 Full image on pp. 130-131 ‘With the growing tendency towards the industrial and commercial regimentation of the Indian masses we find a corresponding dehumanization foreshadowed in the ornamentally formal treatment of human beings in Seurat, perhaps the most advanced of the nineteenth century Western painters. We found this growing tendency towards dehumanization, first in Matisse, then later in Picasso, Braque and most explicitly in Bauneister. But with Sajal, the human figure, unlike the old masters, has gone beyond being a machine; it becomes a revolutionary symbol, almost indistinguishable from the physical world.’ – Arun K. Roy rpt. in an Exhibtion of Paintings by Sajal , BAAC ExC 1970.