Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

An Important early painting by Prabhakar Barwe 58 Prabhakar Barwe 1936-1996 Untitled Mixed media on canvas, 1966 S/d in Devanagari ‘Prabhakar Barwe 1966’ l.c. Inscribed on verso ‘BKBE|APR04|SSJM|01|SAAAAA 11’ 30.0 x 40.0 in (76.2 x 101.6 cm) Provenance New Delhi-based Private Collection; previously acquired from Saffronart.com Auction, 11th June 2009; Lot 80 INR 2,000,000 – 3,000,000 USD 29,850 – 44,780 Full double-spread image on pp.112-113 “He sustains his composition within an architecture of symbolism, an iconic fantasy as it were, derived from what may be described as a curious mixture of op, pop, Indian folk painting and tantra. Some critics have hinted at Miro as source.” – Badrinarayan, in The Significance of Tantric Imagery Today , rpt. in LKC #12 & 13 April –September 1971, p36. “Barwe had an agenda that he followed through his work: the agenda of rendering possible the creation of an art that could validate its affiliations at the levels of being both authentic in its own history, and contemporaneous in the sense of transcending the commonly assumed opposition of tradition and modernity, of representation and abstraction. In fact, a work by Barwe at first glance seems to be a collection of carefully drawn, identifiable objects strewn about in a space the definition of which is never made clear. The viewer is made then, to embark upon an itinerary of her/his own, through this configuration of boundless spaces and scattered objects, entering into a process of recreating the meanings suggested within the work; the process that engenders a renewed questioning of conventionalized expression, leaving the participant enriched.” – Chaitanya Sambrani, quoted in Shraddhanjali -PrabhakarBarwe (1995). ‘Barwe delights in the exploitation of lines and linear forms; in the strength of basic design. The nature of a diagrammatic scheme in his paintings illuminates the constant interplay of symbols and colours of an urban environment with recurring primitivist strains that essentially characterizes the tenor of modern art.” – Badri Narayan, quoted in Lalit Kala Contemporary No. 12 & 13 (April- September 1971): 36. 124 | Osian’s–Connoisseurs of Art