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

66 Bikash Bhattacharjee 1940-2006 In Aquarium Oil on canvas, 1979 S/d in English ‘Bikash ‘79’ l.r. Inscribed ‘-IN AQUARIUM (IMPORTED) ARTIST: BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE ADDRESS: 2D NABO KUMAR RAHA LANE CALCUTTA- 700004 INDIA’ 33.5 x 33.3 in (85.0 x 84.5 cm) Provenance Private Kolkata-based Collection INR 3,000,000 – 4,500,000 USD 44,780 – 67,160 “…Bikash Bhattacharjee seek to define a portrait – space for characters that are in a process of intense metamorphosis…Bikash’s characters appear at first glance normal enough, and the interior space they occupy is a wholly rational one, painted with painstakingly, and technically amazing correctness. Until one notices that the figure has the eyes of a witch, or the body of a bronze deity, or the torso of a giantess. Then the room changes character as though it were a laboratory for secret alchemies. The threshold on which the royal giantess stands becomes the threshold between nightmare and reality…Bikash has intentions of subversion in his paintings where an environmental scene appears, rendered sinister or ridiculous by the artist’s perception.” — Geeta Kapur, rpt. in Pictorial Space , ExC, Lalit Kala Akademi, 1978. ‘Images flock on his canvases directly from his living environment…Bikash obliquely reduces reality into concepts to impart the message contained therein…He is a master of oil medium, adept at scumbling and glazing. His streets and pavements, scorched by the mid-day sun, a floating human figure, a dog sniffing at something, faces with their smudged identity, are haunting images of a living history and human predicament.’ – Sovon Som rpt. In Art of Bengal: a vision defined 1955-1975 . CIMA ExC2002; p.39 Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts & Books | 145