11 F ebr uar y - 11 Mar c h 2023 GALLERY KOLKATA
– Theodore Dreiser “Art is the stored honey of the human soul.”
B VITAL LALU PRASAD SHAW VENKAT BOTSA DHANANJAY SINGH DIVYENDU ANAND BIKASH BATTACHARYA KM ADIMOOLAM MF HUSAIN JOGEN CHOUDHURY LALU PRASAD SHAW SUNIL DAS GURCHARAN SINGH RABIN MONDAL PRAKASH KARMAKAR THOTA VAIKUNTAM SHOWCASING PAINTINGS BY SHOWCASING SCULPTURES BY
My Dear Patrons, Here's wishing each and every one of you a great 2023 ! A year to really look forward to with all the great As we embark into the New Year 2023 , the world reorients itself with rekindled verve to live with fervency. Art , Culture , Food & Travel again are back bigger than 2022 to experience with great gusto ! 'The White Cube' is one such famously infamous, lauded , even intimidating space, which has not only kept the hoi polloi intrigued, but also art lovers & often collectors skeptical of the decorum and silence that most often is the norm in museums and galleries. The "White Cube " is one such Gallery Show which brings our attention back to the traditional format of inviting patrons to view artworks in its designated space, within the four walls of the Gallery, traditionally white in color thus named the White Cube ! Unlike alternate spaces being explored in todays times to showcase art(from ruins to art fairs to old cinema hall, heritage sites etc. ; that is been used to bring forth to the viewer an interesting point of view) , the Gallery is often that comfortable intimate space where art patrons would gather to see & hear the best of art, artists , poets , writers in smaller more intimate groups, without the distraction of too many people , loud noises or even food , that would truly bring the artworks and the artists to their pivotal attention . A respectable dedicated space for the artists and their art . This is the White Cube and this time around we showcase paintings by the modern masters , sculptures by the modern masters as well as with the inclusion of some interesting sculptures by mid career sculptor Divyendu Anand . Rare works by Modern Masters , not in production or circulation anymore . The Art works are meant to bring forth simple joys in their most ardent format. We hope the viewers would enjoy the show as much as the Gallery team had , putting this together . Wishing you a great & artsy 2023 ! Meghna Agarwal Director Dir e ct o r's No t e
K.M. Adimoolam 1938 - 2 0 0 8 Born in 1938 in Tirucharapalli in Tamil Nadu, K.M. Adimoolam moved to Chennai in 1960 where he enrolled at the Government School of Arts and Crafts. His sketches personify the constant quest for an artist’s freedom of expression. His sketches become the supreme carriers of an artist’s creative energy and an embodiment of his quest for the supreme freedom to give vision to that innate creativity. His sketches are like poems in this own right, revealing the essence of the subject in all its glory and yet concealing something, leaving something to the viewer’s imagination. The artist gradually moved towards oil paintings, although in most of his works, he uses a combination of drawing and painting. Colours played a vital role in the journey of evolution of his works from figurative to abstract.
Untitled Oil on Canvas 30 x 42 inches | 2006 06-GK-KMA-OC003-3042 INR 8,40,000/- (Delivered)
Warrior King Pen & Ink on Paper 19 x 13 inches 1998 98-GK-KMA-PIP004-1913 INR 2,75,000/- (Delivered)
Queen Pen & Ink on Paper 19 x 13 inches 1998 98-GK-KMA-PIP005-1913 INR 2,75,000/- (Delivered)
Vithal studied at the Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai. He was an artist who was a master sculptor and painter. While his sculptural works were known for their monumentality his paintings captured the personal and intimate. But in both forms the innate understanding of the human form comes through very strongly. This is not surprising as he studied at the Sir J.J.School of Art, which lay emphasis on the study of the human form through it's live model studio classes, it is also a school that is filled with large sculpture casts of the Greek and Roman sculptures. It was also here that he met his wife and fellow artist B Prabha. They were married in 1956 and had a joint show of their works in the same year. Vithal mostly painted on large canvases and handled the entire surface with ease. His canvases are not precursors to his sculptures; his ability to switch from the 3 dimensions to the 2 dimensions is noteworthy. B. Vi thal 193 5 - 1992
Horse Head Bronze H 20 x W 20 x D 8 inches 00-GK-BV-B003-202008
Horse Bronze H 20 x W 20 x D 8 inches 00-GK-BV-B003-202008 INR 5,50,000/- (Delivered)
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” – Leonardo da Vinci
M.F. Husain is one of the greatest modern painters of India. Known to finish a work in one sitting, Husain's lines were drawn directly with a paintbrush, making no room for error once applied. Renowned for revolutionizing Indian Art, he was a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group which formed in 1947. They combined influences of Indian history with the European avant-garde. Influenced by movements such as PostImpressionism, Cubism and Expressionism, this synthesis is apparent in Husain’s paintings. In 1948, Maqbool Fida Husain visited the India Independence Exhibition with Francis Newton Souza and was struck by the classical Indian sculptures and traditional miniature paintings from the Rajput and Pahari courts. The artist describes the influence the exhibition was to have on his work " ... it was humbling. I came back to Bombay and in '48, I came out with five paintings, which was the turning point in my life. Husain Saab as he is fondly called went on to capture the hearts of all art lovers and collectors across the world. M. F. Husain 191 5 - 2 0 1 1
Raj Series Ink & Pastel on Paper 10 x 14 inches | 1997 INR 650000/- Delivered 97-GK-MFH-MPP019-1410
Rabin Mondal was born in 1932, in Kolkata, in a poor government official`s family. He graduated with Diploma in Fine Arts from the Vidyasagar Art School.His works exploit the grotesque to express inner turmoil and human struggles. His feeling towards his environment has been rather queer. As a young painter, Mondal was attracted by Jamini Roy`s folk style and Rabindranath Tagore`s disquieting paintings and drawings. But the show by French artists was virtually a turning point in his artistic career. "This was like opening a window to an astounding, astonishing, unsuspected world," he says. This encounter with avant-garde Western art helped him to later incorporate elements from it in his own work. His works were first displayed in 1955, as part of a group exhibition along with other leading artists of Bengal school. Rabin Mondal 1929 - 2 0 19
King Oil on Canvas 24 x 19.5 inches 00-GK-RM-OC047-1924 INR 3,50,000/- (Delivered)
00-GK-RM-OB037-2418 Migration Oil on Board 24 x 18 inches INR 3,25,000/- (Delivered)
Thi s work done in heavy impas to i s a special work depicting the beginning of Rabins journey as an arti s t when he lived with hi s family in Kolkata' s Howrah. He would watch worker s come in and worked the daily wage and Rabin would watch thi s from hi s Balcony. Hi s facination for thi s led him to paint them verocious ly in hi s paintings as hi s primary subject.
Born into a middle-class Bengali family, Bikash Bhattacharjee went on to become prolific in a style that was simultaneously traditional as well as realist. His subjects consisted of portraits of people from different walks of life. He gathered his visual and intellectual ideals from the politically charged atmosphere of Forties’ Calcutta where his family had settled. But his highly individualised perception and interpretation of the world differed from the imagery representing either political leaders or suffering people. Bhattacharjee’s characters were treated as more than just representative of their class, but were imprinted as individuals, each with a well etched subjectivity. The end of the Sixties up to the mid-Seventies was marked by a series of surreal paintings, with a subtext of the demonic or subhuman in a setting of either dark fantasy or farce. Bikash Bhat tachar jee 194 0 - 2 0 0 6
62-GK-BB-PP002-3622 Lost in Thoughts Pastel on Paper 36 x 22 inches 1962 850000/- + gst
Ganesha Tempera on Board 20 x 30 inches | 2018 750000/- + gst 18-GK-LPS-TB046-2030
Born in Bengal in 1937, and completed his education in fine arts at the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Kolkata. Known widely for his highly stylized portraits of Bengali women and couples, Lalu Prasad Shaw’s works lay the most emphasis on his subject’s physical characteristics. Capturing the expressions of his subjects perfectly with the greatest economy of line and colour each of Shaw’s paintings has an intimate feel to it. Though he would describe himself as a painter, Shaw took a liking to printmaking when he was 32 years old and mastered the genre of graphic arts shortly since he had worked with intaglios and lithographs earlier, making a name for himself as a printmaker comparable to the great reputation that he already had as a painter. Lalu Prasad Shaw B 193 7
Babu Tempera on Board 20 x 28 inches | 2018 18-GK-LPS-TB038-2820 INR 11,96,000/- (Delivered) Set of two
Bibi Tempera on Board 20 x 28 inches | 2018 18-GK-LPS-TB037-2820 INR 11,96,000/- (Delivered) Set of two
Bibi Tempera on Board 20 x 28 inches | 2017 17-GK-LPS-TB035-2820 INR 11,96,000/- (Delivered) Set of two
Babu Tempera on Board 20 x 28 inches | 2017 17-GK-LPS-TB036-2820 INR 11,96,000/- (Delivered) Set of two
Bal Ganesha Bronze Edition 3/6 36 x 36.5 x 35.5 inches 00-GK-LPS-B027-363635 INR 9,16,000/- (Delivered)
Ganesha Tempera on Board 24 x 24 inches 2015 650000/- Delivered 15-GK-LPS-TB049-2424
Nabakumar Bronze H 20 x W 46 x D 20 inches Edition of 5 + AP Edition 4/5 00-GK-LPS-B029-204620
Bouthakurani Bronze H 44 x W 18 x D 13.5 inches Edition of 5 + AP 00-GK-LPS-B053-441813 INR 8,60,000/- (Delivered)
Prokash Karmarkar came from an artistic family; his father was a renowned artist of his time. Unfortunately, all of his father`s paintings were destroyed in the Hindu Muslim riots in the 1940s, which also ruined his family. By 1949, both his parents had passed away, forcing him to abandon his studies at the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata. Virtually penniless and desperate for a break, in 1956, he held a street exhibition, the first in the city, hanging his works along a corner. As an artist, he is considered a revolutionary in the sense that he doesn`t exhibit in art galleries. All through his artistic career he has always exhibited on street corners. He says, “I do not want my paintings to be imprisoned within four walls.” Influenced by the works of Picasso and the classic impressionists, Karmarkar`s work reflects the degenerating society and the confusion that prevails in India today. Prokash Karmakar 193 3 - 2 0 14
Landscape Acrylic on Canvas 52 x 46 inches 2007 07-GK-PK-AOC081-5246 INR 3,25,000/- (Delivered)
Landscape Acrylic on Canvas 52 x 46 inches 2007 07-GK-PK-AOC080-5246 INR 3,25,000/- (Delivered)
Woman with the Flower Acrylic on Paper 28 x 20 inches 1990 Woman in moonlight Acrylic on Paper 28 x 20 inches 1980 00-GK-PK-AP178-2820 00-GK-PK-AP189-2820 INR 1,50,000/- Each (Delivered)
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” – Francis Bacon
A student of the Government College of Art & Craft in Calcutta, Sunil Das would later also study at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and with William Hayter and Krishna Reddy at Atelier-17, also in Paris. Known for his iconic drawings of bulls and horses, Sunil Das painted across several oeuvres, each one distinctive and to which he brought his singular vision. F. N. Souza once said about Sunil Das: ‘His paintings are often about death and horror. Sunil Das’s images of the bulls were inspired by his observations during a trip to Spain. And the horses were from, if not at Calcutta’s racecourse, then at the stable of Calcutta’s Mounted Police, where the artist spent his time observing and sketching them. His flawless drawings capture the speed, power and energy of the animals. They became symbolic of the energy, aggression and power of modern times and of his own untamed youthful spirit and a sense of liberation. Sunil Das 1939 - 2 0 1 5
Horse Head Oil on Canvas 7.5 x 8.5 inches | 1978 78-GK-SD-OC102-0708 INR 1,68,000/- (Delivered)
Head Mixed Media on Board 15 x 20 inches | 2002 02-GK-SD-MMB085-2015 INR 3,50,000/- (Delivered)
Head Mixed Media on Board 15.25 x 19.25 inches | 2002 02-GK-SD-MMB070-1915 INR 3,50,000/- (Delivered)
Bull Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 9 inches 2009 09-GK-SD-AOC100-1209 INR 2,90,000/- (Delivered)
59-GK-SD-OB101-2429 Early Horses Oil on Board 24 x 29.5 inches | 1959-60 775000/- delivered
Untitled Mixed Media 30 x 38.5 inches | 2007 07-GK-SD-MM103-3038 INR 10,00,000/- For a Set (Delivered)
Untitled M i xed M edia 3 1 x 34.5 inches 2007 07-GK-SD-MM104-3134 INR 10,00,000/- For a Set (Delivered)
Educated at the Government College of Art & Craft, Calcutta and subsequently at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, Jogen is one painter who has inspired young artists of contemporary India, in a significant way. R. Siva Kumar, the reputed art historian, has lucidly described Jogen's works in the following excerpt: The pulse and rhythm of Jogen Chowdhury's art comes from a filial affinity to nature and milieu. In Chowdhury's more recent works the sensory experiences of cloth, bolsters, sofas and the human body are cross-projected to produce an uncanny world of transubstantiated tumescence and flaccidness. Mnemic displacements and personal associations add to the symbolic ambivalence of his motifs, making his images come closer to inexplicable experiences than to explicit signs. In the postures of some figures we feel an animal sentience, in the ripe anatomy of others we savour a fruity succulence. Jogen Chowdhury B 1939
Mixed Media on Paper 16.7 x 12 inches 2006 INR 6,82,000/- (Delivered) CON-06-GK-JC-MMP074-1612
Untitled Ink with Brush & Dry Pastel on Paper 14 x 11 inches | 2014 14-GK-JC-PP087-1411 INR 4,30,000/- (Delivered)