Osian's Auction Catalogue The Osianama Series |February 2013

242 Mid 1980s ‘The ordinary men and women are now a part of the well recognized Meera Mukherjee signature. Looking beyond traditional methods of shape, she has created a richly detailed portrait of life around her… She combines myths, folklore, peasant art to create new art, expressive of the complexity, unease and psychological darkness of the modern age.’ – Maitreyi Chatterjee, rpt. in Sculptures-Paintings-Sketches by Meera Mukherjee BAAC 1993 ExC. “I have observed how creativity develops in the small child, who asks her mother, ‘What is on the other side of sky?’ Her grasp of knowledge is what she sees around her, and that starts her process of creativity. That is why when she loses her kite, her imagination soars and she wanders around in the skies and among the clouds, searching for the lost kite... (you know, these are my own experiences as a child). For a long time after that, when the kite was mentioned, she remembered her kite. The two were interlinked... The child observes the drums being played in the city by Bihari coolies, at Holi. And when she hears the clouds rumbling she believes they are drums. In fact, she used to think that huge drums would tumble out one day and rain from the sky...” – Meera Mukherjee, rpt. in Sen, Geeti. Image and Imagination: Five Contemporary Artists in India . Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 1996; p.40. “The sculptures of Meera Mukherjee have always been a tremendously moving experience for the viewer. The rare and instinctive quality of romanticism is irrevocably reinforced by technical brilliance and expressive artistry… The ordinary men and women, the toiling masses are now a part of the well recognised Meera Mukherjee signature… Combining popular appeal with real artistic quality and purity of vision she has emerged as India’s Dickens of sculpture. Her art is immediately accessible. Diverting, yet intellectually demanding… The surface for her is never more important than form, the part never more telling than the whole… It is not the manual dexterity involved in the technicalities but the vision which creates the ecstasy of communication. Her sculpture always gives the impression of the whole thing driven as though by a single creative impulse.” – Maitreyi Chatterjee, rpt. in BAAC ExC. 1993. Untitled Bronze, Mid 1980s Signed in English ‘M.M II’ on left side of the base 11.8 x 11.6 x 13.0 in (30.0 x 29.5 x 33.0 cm) Provenance Chitrakoot Art Gallery Collection ` 500,000 – 1,000,000 US$ 9,090 – 18,180 GBP 6,250 – 12,500 130 Meera Mukherjee 12 May 1923 – 27 January 1997