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

Ramkinkar Baij b. 25 May 1906 – d. 1 August 1980 Untitled (Still Life) Watercolour on paper pasted on cardboard, Late 1940s 9.6 x 6.2 in (24.3 x 15.8 cm) Signed in Bengali ‘Ramkinkar’ l.r. Condition Surface dirt with minor sections of the paper eaten by insects with a few acidic stains ` 300,000 – 450,000 $ 4,170 – 6,250 16 Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Ramkinkar Baij by a Mumbai- based Asst. Commissioner of Police (Rtd.) in the year 1973. Sold to present Mumbai-based owner in 2006. Ramkinkar’s watercolours stand a little apart from the rest of his oeuvre. They represent his immediate response to visual facts and are free from pre-concepts and after thoughts. The medium and his work process contributed to this considerably. They were done on the spot and with great speed and often came in a series recording a perception or experience close on its heels… it is also in the water colours that his response to nature is best expressed. Though he was a man who spent a lot of time under the open sky this does not come out clearly in his oil paintings and sculpture where he is more pre-occupied with human drama. In the water colours nature dominates and he is more closer to Nandalal and Benodebehari. R.Siva Kumar Rpt. in Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism. NGMA 1997 (There is no pagination in this book) Detailed Artist Biography osianama.com/artists/ ramkinkar-baij