Modern to Contemporary

MODERN-CONTEMPORARY

SEPT 15 - OCT 30, 2021
GALLERY KOLKATA

Modern to
Contemporary

MODERN-CONTEMPORARY

SEPTEMBER 15 - OCT 30, 2021
GALLERY KOLKATA

Gallery Kolkata
41 Shakespeare Sarani, Duckback House Kolkata - 700017

M : +91-9339839386 | E : [email protected]

From the Gallery's Desk

Modern to Contemporary
Sept 15 - Oct 30, 2021

Reminiscing way back in 2007, when the Gallery
opened its doors in Duck back House, we opened the
new gallery space with a show aptly titled "Modern to
Contemporary"

What, with our heart, torn between whether the
opening show should begin by showing works by the
top modern artists which would garner more interest
and perhaps be more apt for an opening show; or
should we show contemporary avant-garde works by
the mid-career artists. Unable to decide either- or,
we went along with showing both generations of
artists in one large eclectic show.

Fast forward 17yrs later, with so many young talents
in the foray, we again feel as divided as we felt in
2007

Through experience, we know the most easy solution -
show them all under one ingenious banner, providing
a perfect platform for the young to get noticed
alongside the masters ; the mid-career to stay
competitive with the young cerebral or technically
impressive works by the younger generation and the
younger artists to get inspired by the mid-career
artists as well as the masters artists, much senior to
them.

Changing times witness a change in art trends. Art
being a reflection of the society , environment ,
current times, embodies all of these factors thus
representing and becoming a documentation for the
trends and happenings of those times.

The pandemic , brought about a crisis in the society
and our artists were not far away to feel that and
depict the same in their works. Each one has
witnessed a changed in their thoughts and perception
of the society about life and death which have mildly
or strongly influenced their works.

This show traces interesting works by master artists,
mid-career contemporary artists and the young artist.

Team Gallery Kolkata
September 2021

Old Bengal & Modern

HOME AND DECOR

Old Kalighat

Pat Paintings
Gouache on Paper
30 x 22 inches
76 x 56 cm

INR 90,000/-
(Set of 3 works)

A slight discolouration of the paper and little wear and tear is
natural in these old works .However by and large they are in good

condition with no need for any restoration .

(a) (b)

Old Kalighat

(a) Pat Paintings
to Gouache on Paper
(f) 16 x 12 inches

41 x 30 cm

INR 1,50,000/-
(Set of 6 works)

(c)

(d) (e)

Old Kalighat

(a) Pat Paintings
to Gouache on Paper
(f) 16 x 12 inches

41 x 30 cm

INR 1,50,000/-
(Set of 6 works)

(f)

INDRA DUGAR

1918 - 1989

The technique and art practices he acquired from his father without going
through any academic routine. Indra Dugar considered Santiniketan his
alma-mater, and drew his inspiration from the art of Nandalal Bose.
Perhaps the absence of academic programming gave Dugar’s art a rare
individuality that distinguished him from other artists of Kala Bhavana.
Dugar soon outgrew the Bengal School mannerisms, invariably visiting
places to paint ‘on the spot’ observed views of nature and life. While
progressively reducing the naturalistic details in his paintings, Indra Dugar
instinctively retained colour harmony for expressing serenity in nature.

Recto Indra Dugar

From His Notebook
No. 4 Ink Drawings
(double-sided works)

Ink on Paper
10.5 x 8 inches | 1963-64

Set-1 INR 75000/-

Verso

These unique four drawings are Recto
from the sketch book of the
Master artist are done on both
sides. A set of 4 drawings
framed in an acrylic sheet
allows us to use both sides of
the work as per our desired
permutations and combinations.
Enjoy 8 different works in 4
unique drawings.

Set-2 INR 50000/-

Verso

Set-3 Recto

Indra Dugar Verso
Verso
Untitled

Ink on Paper
10.5 x 8 inches
26.67 x 20.32 cm
1963-64
Signed
INR 50000/- each

Set-4

Recto

A picture is a poem
without words.

Horace

S.H. RAZA

1922 - 2016

Raza worked mainly with a few primary colours, assembled and reassembled to
simulate the passion and colours of his homeland. At the same time, he had
realised the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of nature and began
incorporating these principles in his works. In the late 1970s, the artist's focus
turned to pure geometrical forms; his images were improvisations on an
essential theme: that of the mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind.
Around this time, the bindu—a motif that would become synonymous with
Raza’s art— began emerging in his work. It was the result of his concern with
“pure plastic order” combined with his preoccupation with nature. “Both have
converged into a single point and became inseparable; the point, the bindu,
symbolises the seed, bearing the potential of all life, in a sense. It is also visible
form containing all the essential requisites of line, tone, colour, texture and
space. The black space is charged with latent forces aspiring for fulfilment.”

S.H. Raza

Bindu

INR 150000/-

Lithograph on Paper , Edition 147/450
43 x 21 inches | 109 x 53 cm | 2008 | Signed

GANESH PYNE

1937 - 2013

The foremost exponent of Bengal School of Art Ganesh Pyne has blended
romanticism, fantasy and inventive play of light and dark in his works wherein
the labyrinths of subconscious have formulated the imagery of his paintings.
His own experiences of pain, solitude, alienation, horror shaped up his
signature style.
Ganesh Pyne is obsessed with death. He can't forget his first brush with death,
in the summer of 1946, when communal riots had rocked Kolkata. His family
was forced out of their crumbling mansion. As he roamed around the city, he
stumbled upon a pile of dead bodies. On the top was the body of a stark
naked old woman, with wounds on her breast. No wonder then his paintings
rarely has light backgrounds, and blue and black happens to be his favorite
colors. Death also finds its way back into his canvas through different motifs.
Working mostly in tempera, his paintings are rich in imagery and symbolism.



Ganesh Pyne

Untitled

Watercolour & Ink on Paper
8.5 x 7 inches | 21.59 x 17.78 cm
1987 | Signed

from the collection of a Bengali Gentleman of Kolkata whose
father bought it from the artist and thence by decent .
Further authenticated by Pranab Ranjan Ray , who was the
presiding art historian with the society of contemporary artist,
of which artists like Ganesh Pyne , Paritosh Sen , Sunil Das , Lalu
prasad Shaw, Manu Parekh etc were governing body members .

An artist is not paid
for his labor but for

his vision.

James Whistler

B. PRABHA

1933 - 2001

B. Prabha was born in the village of Bela, near Nagpur in 1933. She studied at the
Nagpur School of Art and went to Mumbai as a struggling artist with less than
three rupees to her name. There she went on to pursue a Diploma in Painting and
Mural Painting from the Sir J. J. School of Art. In 1956, she was still a student
when she held her first exhibition with her husband B. Vithal, which proved to be
a great success with three of her paintings being acquired by Homi Bhabha.
Throughout the 1950's she remained one of a handful of successful female artists
in India frequently confessing that it was the painting style of Amrita Sher-Gil that
inspired her. In the late 1950's she moved from modernist semi abstracted forms to
a more direct figurative style. Following this early phase of experimentation,
Prabha developed an elegant, formal style that remained her trademark
throughout her career. She is best known for these graceful elongated figures of
pensive rural women, but her paintings cover a wide range of subjects, from
landscapes to social issues like droughts, hunger and homelessness. A significant
component of Prabha's body of work is thus the artist's self-conscious attempt to
immortalize the plight of Indian women.



B. Prabha

Fisher Women

30 x 18 inches
Oil on Board
1961

This work comes from the collection of the
Samalkars, caretakers of the estate works of
B Prabha & B Vital. Was acquired while the
artist was alive.
Further authenticated by Nayanna Samalkar

M.F. HUSAIN

1915 - 2011

M.F. Husain or Maqbool Fida Husain was an Indian artist famous for making
bold and vibrant coloured paintings. M.F. Husain was one of the most
celebrated Indian artists of the 20th century. He was also associated with the
Bombay Progressive Artists' Group.
He was one of the most celebrated and internationally recognized Indian artists
of the 20th century.
In 1935 Husain moved to Mumbai (Bombay), where he designed and painted
graphic billboard advertisements for Bollywood movies. After his first serious
work was exhibited (1947) by the Bombay Art Society, he was invited to join
five other painters in founding the Progressive Artists Group. Husain, who
became known as the “Picasso of India,” created works that could be caustic and
funny as well as serious and sombre.

M.F. Husain detailed view

M.F. Husain

Untitled

Marker & Pastel on Paper
14 x 10 inches
36 x 25 cm
1997
Signed Upper Left

This work comes from the collection of a respectable lawyer from Texas whose
father collected it from the artist. Thence by decent.
Further authenticated by Pranab Ranjan Ray

M.F. Husain

Untitled

Marker & Pastel on Paper
14 x 10 inches
35.56 x 25.4 cm
1997
Signed Bottom Right

This work comes from the collection of a respectable lawyer from Texas whose
father collected it from the artist. Thence by decent.
Further authenticated by Pranab Ranjan Ray

M.F. Husain

Untitled

Mixed Media on Paper
14 x 10 inches each
36 x 25 cm
1997
Signed Upper Right

This work comes from the collection of a respectable lawyer from Texas
whose father collected it from the artist. Thence by decent.
Further authenticated by Pranab Ranjan Ray

M.F. Husain

Untitled

Mixed Media on Paper
14 x 10 inches each
36 x 25 cm
1997
Signed Upper Left

Hussain paints his own image , laying down with his favorite
camera , which he used cleverly to capture life's essence , people
and the environment around him.

This work comes from the collection of a respectable lawyer from Texas
whose father collected it from the artist. Thence by decent.
Further authenticated by Pranab Ranjan Ray

M.F. Husain

Untitled

Serigraph on Paper
14 x 22 inches
36 x 56 cm
Signed Bottom Right

INR 65000/- Set

SAKTI BURMAN

b 1935

Burman uses pointillism and a marbling technique achieved by blending
oils with acrylics to create fresco-like works on paper and canvas.
Burman’s paintings often evoke a surrealist feel, referencing multiplicities
of time and place. His art drew extensively from Hindu and European
mythology, as well as from the artist’s own memories. Suggesting
surrealism, his paintings are populated by humans, animals and
cityscapes that are dreamlike in appearance. His defining oeuvre owes
largely to his technique of marbling, which he arrived at after years of
experimentation. Burman travelled to Italy in 1958 and his encounter with
the frescoes of Giotto, Piero de la Francesca and Simone Martini inspired
him to assimilate their monumentality and textures in his works.

Sakti Burman (a)

Untitled

(a) Watercolour on Paper

7.5 x 9.5 inches
19 x 24 cm
Signed Bottom Right

(b) Pen on Paper

3 x 6 inches
8 x 15 cm
1992
Signed Bottom Right

(c) Mixed Media on Paper

4.5 x 9 inches
11.5 x 23 cm
1992
Signed Bottom
INR 5,50,000/-
(Set of 3)

(b)

(c)

BIJAN CHOUDHURY

1931 - 2012

Bijan Choudhury has worked on the imagery of Bengali poetry as it has
evolved since its earliest days to the present, covering almost more than

four centuries of poetical development. His paintings have narrative
elements but are in no way illustrative. He is here both as a composer
and interpreter. His archetypal imagery and symbolism are not explicit as

in the recent Indian variety of Surrealism and fantastic art. He has
always avoided the sensational and the fearful aspects of art. He has
searched for significant visual forms that have behind them the range

and scope of Human Art since the earliest cave dwelling days.

Bijan Choudhury

Bohurupee

Oil & Acrylic on Canvas
42 x 36 inches
107 x 91 cm
2006
Signed Bottom Left

INR 3,25,000/-

Bijan Choudhury Mixed Media on Canvas
42 x 48 inches
Untitled 107x 122 cm
2008
Signed Bottom Right

INR 4,20,000/-

Bijan Choudhury

Untitled

Mixed Media on Canvas
48 x 60 inches
121.92 x 152.4 cm
Signed

Price on Request

PROKASH KARMAKAR

1933 - 2014

Karmakar is best known for his landscapes and nudes, which are
generally painted in vibrant colors with bold lines and intricate
textures. His paintings reflect his perception and interpretation of

nature (both orderly and chaotic), life (both rural and urban), and
form (from soft to sharp), without reference to religion.

Prokash Karmakar

Landscape

Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 40 inches
91 x 102 cm
2012
Signed Bottom Left

INR 350000/-

Prokash Karmakar details ...

Prokash Karmakar

Landscape

Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 60 inches
122 x 152 cm
2012
Signed Bottom Left

INR 500000/-

Prokash
Karmakar

Untitled

Dry Pastel on Paper
20 x 29 inches
51 x 74 cm
1999
(each)
Signed Bottom

INR 70000/- each

LAXMA K GOUD

B 1940

Goud derives inspiration from his childhood in rural Andhra Pradesh,
India. His flora and fauna are typically lush and wild, and his tribal men
and women are clad in colorful lungis and saris and bejeweled with
traditional tribal ornaments. Though he commonly portrays quotidian
scenes of common folk, his works are highly stylized, depicting a sort of
fantasy world. Goud has experimented with various types of media, from
traditional oils, to watercolor, pen, ink, colored pencil and etchings in his
two-dimensional work, to a series of bronze and terra cotta sculptures he
produced near the turn of the millennium.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Laxma K Goud Etching on Paper
6 x 6 inches
Untitled 15 x 15 cm | 2017
Signed Bottom
INR 85,000/-
(Set of 2)

(e) (g)

(f) (h)

Laxma K Goud

Untitled

Etching on Paper
6 x 6.5 inches
15 x 15 cm | 2017
INR 85,000/-
(Set of 2)

SUNIL DAS

1939 - 2015

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… [He is] a master of the horrific in art.’
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

Head

Mixed Media on Board
15.25 x 20 inches
39 x 50 cm
2002
Signed B/R

Sunil Das

Head

Mixed Media on Board
15 x 20 inches
38.1 x 50.8 cm
2002
Signed B/L

INR 2,50,000/- (each)

LALU PRASAD SHAW

B 1937

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. Influenced by the pre-independence Company School of art, the
traditional Kalighat Pat and the Ajanta cave paintings, Shaw’s works, mainly
executed in gouache or tempera, like his own person, are simple and
graceful, having a very still, well-composed and smooth exterior. This senior
artist draws his inspiration primarily from nature and the milieu surrounding
the great Bengali middle class, often depicting pleasant and quiet scenes from
his own life on his canvases and papers. His style is unique and modern in its
adaptation of academic and traditional Indian formats.

Lalu Prasad Shaw

Babu

Tempera on Board
15 x 21 inches | 38x 53 cm
2018 | Signed B/R

INR 5,50,000/-

ANITA ROY CHOWDHURY

B 1939

She is one of the pioneering artists not only for Bengal but also
for India and abroad because of her brilliant work of indigenous
form and application of colours. Gifted with inner sense of music
she encompasses that arena of mind where words and melody
are fused with visual symphony. Her paintings are nothing but
voice of nature. Every moment deserves transformations of life

eternally, having life and death simultaneously. She has thus
been able to maintain this within her creations.

Anita Roy Chowdhury

Mother & Child

Oil on Canvas
36 x 48 inches
91 x 122 cm
2006
Signed B/R

INR 3,20,000/-

BADRI NARAYAN

1929 - 2013

His distinctive pictorial vocabulary draws from medieval woodcuts,
Byzantine portraiture, Ajanta murals and Pahari miniatures. Working in a

space between the literary and the visual, the artist’s primary vehicle
remains the narrative. Many of his pictorial protagonists, allegories and

situations stem from the realm of Indic myths and folklore.