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

75 Manjit Bawa 1941-2008 Lady with Cat Oil on canvas, 1987 S/d in English ‘Manjit Bawa ‘87’ on verso 28.9 x 23.8 in (73.5 x 60.5 cm) Provenance The Collection of Madhusudan Kushary, National Award winning artist, animal & environmental activist, Nainital, Uttarakhand; acquired directly from the artist Manjit Bawa, who was a friend and colleague for over thirty years INR 3,000,000 – 4,500,000 USD 44,780 – 67,160 76 Manjit Bawa 1941-2008 Krishna and Follower Oil on canvas, 1989 S/d in English’Manjit Bawa ‘89’ on verso 32.7 x 44.8 in (83.0 x 113.8 cm) Provenance Private New Delhi-based Collector; previously from the Collection of Madhusudan Kushary, National Award winning artist, animal & environmental activist, Nainital, Uttarakhand; acquired directly from the artist Manjit Bawa, who was a friend and colleague for over thirty years INR 4,000,000 – 6,000,000 USD 59,700 – 89,550 Full double-spread image on pp. 164-165 “His colours are vibrant and complementary, deft juxtapositions of greens and mauves, of reds and magentas and blues and yellows, of flat areas setting off forms softly modelled—not the stroke by stroke structuring of the image but its instant unveiling in animated suspension. As the image is revealed, the backdrop itself becomes the enactment. It is the poignance of this compulsion which gives an animal physicality of Manjit’s ethereal domain, a domain of signification of the dangers lurking around. It is also a domain of kindness, a domain of soft nudgings, of endearments, of wayward graces, of thoughtful pauses and of rest. It makes no false promises, but offers meanwhile the company of wry humour, of a sense of wonder, of compassion.” – J. Swaminathan, from ‘Dogs Too Keep the Night Watch’ , in ManjitBawa: Birla Academy of Art & Culture ExC.1993. “The deeply reflective mode in some of these iconic images have to do with the notion of zikr or remembrance in sama or the act of listening as practiced by the Sufis traveling through and experiencing the vastness of ecology…It could be argued that Manjit’s work in his last phase has moved assuredly away from a typological iconography of the face. There is an unambiguous aspiration towards emblematic remembrance. This is the way of approaching the domain of subjectivity, perhaps.” – Madan Gopal Singh, rpt. in Bhav, Bhaav, Bhavya , Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai/ Impresario, Calcutta/ Gallery Espace, New Delhi, 1999, pp. 27-8, ExC. Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts & Books | 163