Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Contemporary Fine Arts | October 2018

41 Indian Modern Contemporary Fine Arts Son of Russian artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich, Svetoslav Roerich’s upbringing has complex cultural variants absorbed from multiple traditions. Thus, his style of painting accommodates/ assimilates many influences and interests. Svetoslav started living in India from 1931 onwards. His works were first exhibited in India in Lucknow in 1936-37. After spending his initial years in India in the Kullu Valley, Svetoslav settled in Bangalore where he founded ‘Chitrakala Parishad’ in 1972. The Chitrakala Parishad became the local university department for the arts, and is his institutional contribution to the cultural milieu of the city. His works on Himalayas are an extension of his father’s works that capture the mysticism and divine aura of the mountains. Symbolism is an important aspect of his works – his treatment of myths that he absorbed from Indian mythology as well as biblical imagery such as in his series The Sacred Flute, where the shepherd boy is Lord Krishna as well as the thematic symbolism of crucifixion, pain and anguish in the act of self-sacrifice. G. Venkatachalam in his essay describes “some of Svetoslav’s works have this deep mystic quality, the quality of letting you glimpse, however momentary it may be, the Real amidst the Unreal, the Light amidst Darkness, the Truth amidst Falsehood. That definitely is a spiritual form of art. Hence also the symbolic nature of some of his large canvases,... G. Venkatachalam, rpt. in ‘Svetoslav Roerich’, Svetoslav Roerich Memorial Volume, Bangalore, 1974 , p. 6 – 8. detail