CREATIVE CIRCUIT: THE ART OF K G SUBRAMANYAN (19-20 JANUARY 2021)

CREATIVE CIRCUIT

THE ART OF

K G SUBRAMANYAN

from the 1950s to 2000s

19 – 20 JANUARY 2021 | ONLINE AUCTION

From the Collection of the
SEAGULL FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS

1

2

CONTENTS

2 SALES AND ENQUIRIES
9 THE AUCTION CATALOGUE
198 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
202 CONDITIONS FOR SALE
211 ABSENTEE/PROXY BID FORM

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OUR TEAM

DINESH VAZIRANI MINAL VAZIRANI PUNYA NAGPAL ABHA HOUSEGO ANU NANAVATI

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER PRESIDENT SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT
AND CO‒FOUNDER AND CO‒FOUNDER INTERNATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL, NEW YORK
LONDON

CLIENT RELATIONS

DHANASHREE SHAHEEN VIRANI AMIT KAPOOR ADITI PARAB AASHISH DUBEY DEEPIKA SHAH DARPANA
WAIKAR CAPOOR
ASSOCIATE VICE ASSOCIATE VICE MANAGER SENIOR MANAGER SENIOR MANAGER
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT PRESIDENT JEWELLERY & CLIENT RELATIONS CLIENT RELATIONS SENIOR MANAGER
PRESIDENT CLIENT RELATIONS JEWELLERY COLLECTIBLES CLIENT RELATIONS
CLIENT RELATIONS
EDITORIAL AND DESIGN

JOE CYRIL MAIA JASUBHOY ALKA SAMANT JATIN LAD EESHA PATKAR KRITI BAJAJ

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER VICE PRESIDENT DESIGN SENIOR DESIGNER EDITORIAL MANAGER EDITORIAL MANAGER
CLIENT RELATIONS,
LONDON

OPERATIONS AND FINANCE

MANU CHANDRA VINAY BHATE YASH GADHIYA NARSINGRAO

HEAD OF OPERATIONS VICE PRESIDENT HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER
FINANCE AND PRODUCT TECHNOLOGY

ANJALI GHATGE CHANDRA POOJARI ABHINAV JHA

MANAGER SENIOR MANAGER EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
FINANCE LOGISTICS COORDINATOR ‒ PARTNER
GALLERY PROGRAMME

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All bidding will take place at saffronart.com. All lots are published in the e‒catalogue and may also be viewed on
the website. Select lots may be viewed in Mumbai by appointment.

AUCTION DATES

Start: Tuesday, 19 January 2021, 8.45 pm Indian Standard Time
(10.15 am US Eastern Time and 3.15 pm UK Time)

Close: Wednesday, 20 January 2021, 8 pm Indian Standard Time onwards
(09:30 am US Eastern Time and 02:30 pm UK Time)

Please note that bidding closes at different times according to Lot Groups. These times have been listed in the Bid
Closing Schedule.

VIEWINGS BY APPOINTMENT

MUMBAI
14 – 20 January 2021
11 am – 5 pm, Monday to Saturday
(By prior appointment only)

VENUE
Saffronart, Industry Manor, Ground Floor
Appasaheb Marathe Marg
Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400025

SALES TEAM AND AUCTION ENQUIRIES

Mumbai Contact: Punya Nagpal, Dhanashree Waikar, Shaheen Virani, Aashish Dubey, Deepika Shah or Aditi Parab
Email: [email protected] | Contact: +91 22 68554100
New Delhi Contact: Amit Kapoor or Darpana Capoor | Email: [email protected] | Contact: +91 11 24369415
USA Contact: Anu Nanavati | Email: [email protected] | Tel: +1 212 627 5006
UK Contact: Abha Housego or Maia Jasubhoy | Email: [email protected] | Tel: +44 20 7409 7974

ADDRESSES

India Mumbai: Industry Manor, 3rd Floor, Appasaheb Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400025
New Delhi: The Oberoi, Dr. Zakir Hussain Marg, New Delhi 110003

USA The Fuller Building, 595 Madison Avenue, Suite 1207, New York, NY 10022
UK 73 New Bond Street, 1st Floor, London, W1S 1RS

5

Circa 1940s
K G Subramanyan with Ramkinkar Baij
Santiniketan
Personal album of K G Subramanyan

6

CREATIVE CIRCUIT:

THE ART OF K G SUBRAMANYAN

K G Subramanyan (1924 ‒ 2016), one of India’s most engaging and influential artists,
was active in the Indian art scene for more than 70 years. Born in Kerala in 1924 and
keenly interested in the arts since childhood, he decided to study art only after an
initial engagement with socialism, Gandhian activism and a short term in prison for
participation in the Quit India movement. Debarred from government colleges for his
involvement in the national movement, he left Madras (now Chennai) where he was
pursuing a degree in economics and moved to Santiniketan in 1944—out of the orbit
of Gandhi into the orbit of Rabindranath Tagore.
In Santiniketan he came in intimate contact with Nandalal Bose and his close associates
in the new art movement, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij, who sensitised
him to the requisites of a modernism alert to the environment and life around. From
them he learned to see art as a response to social and personal needs for communication
and expression, and to seek a perspective on art, which had a broad, cultural horizon,
rather than a narrow, professional one. This led him to simultaneously pursue the varied
roles of artist, designer and teacher, and to make them mutually enriching.
A lucid and perceptive writer, an inspired educator closely associated with the art
institutions at Baroda and Santiniketan, and a design‒consultant associated for many
years with national and international bodies for design education and crafts promotion,
Subramanyan combined the ingenuity of a consummate craftsman with the alertness
of a nimble thinker. He liberally shared his ideas and vision with three generations of
Indian artists and designers and has had a seminal influence on art and design practice
in India.
—R Siva Kumar, Santiniketan

7

Portrait photograph by Naveen Kishore
8

K G SUBRAMANYAN and
SEAGULL FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS

For more than 25 years, K G Subramanyan worked closely with the Seagull Foundation
for the Arts based in Kolkata. Apart from publishing his art criticism and exhibition
catalogues, the Foundation also hosted touring exhibitions of the artist’s work. Since
Subramanyan’s death in 2016, the Foundation has continued to devote itself to
promoting awareness of Subramanyan’s art and writing.
“He was never at a loss for words to say behind your back. Kind words. Words of affection.
Words that would have made you blush with pride were they uttered in earshot. But
you got tempered versions of them anyway. Through a loyal grapevine.
I would often hear, for example, “Only my dear friend Naveen is mad enough to carry
large quantities of my paintings in trucks around the country. Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar,
Chandigarh, Patna, Bhopal … otherwise I wouldn’t get shown all over to younger people.
Mostly the paintings get shown and sold in the metro cities.”
Last week, Uma [Subramanyan’s daughter] shared the last few entries written in
the notebooks wrapped in brown paper. His texts echo his preoccupation with the
exhibition and must have been written a few days before his hip fracture. His surgery.
His sudden passing.
Here was a man who spent a lifetime affirming his faith in the gallery system. Working
with every gallery in the country that approached him. And yet, he remained outside
the marketplace. Never tempted by anything other than his muse—his art.”
—Naveen Kishore, Seagull Foundation for the Arts, 2016

(Excerpt from a text written at the time of the artist’s death)

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THE FIRST ENCOUNTER
(1950s — 1960s)

BARODA, BOMBAY, THE WEAVERS’ SERVICE CENTRE

LOTS 1‒23

Closing Time: Wednesday, 20 January 2021

8 pm (IST)
9.30 am (US Eastern Time)

11

“Subramanyan’s career began in earnest in the 1950s. At this time, the debt
he owed to his Santiniketan training was evident. “[The 50s works] trace
his transition from an impressionable student, influenced by two dissimilar
mentors — Ramkinkar [Baij] and Benode Behari [Mukherjee] — to a young
artist putting together the rudimentary framework of a visual language and
vision of his own. Tentative as such works are, they are helpful in tracing the
growth trajectory of an artist.”

(R Siva Kumar, Self Portraits and Other Early Drawings, Kolkata: Seagull Foundation for the Arts, 2020)

12

1

Untitled

Circa 1950s
Gouache on paper
8.5 x 6 in (21.6 x 15.2 cm)

$2,780 ‒ 4,170
Rs 2,00,000 ‒ 3,00,000

13

1952
K G Subramanyan in his studio
Baroda
Personal album of K G Subramanyan

14

2

Untitled

Circa 1950s
Gouache on canvas pasted on paper
9 x 6 in (22.9 x 15.2 cm)

$2,780 ‒ 4,170
Rs 2,00,000 ‒ 3,00,000

15

16

a

3

a) Untitled
Circa 1950s
Pen and watercolour on paper
9 x 12.5 in (22.8 x 31.7 cm)

b) Untitled
Circa 1950s
Gouache on paper
12.5 x 9 in (39.3 x 27.9 cm)

$4,865 ‒ 6,250
Rs 3,50,000 ‒ 4,50,000
b (Set of two)

17

a

b

4

a) Untitled
1955
Gouache on paper
11.7 x 8.5 in (29.7 x 21.5 cm)

b) Untitled
1955
Gouache on paper
12.75 x 9.25 in (32.3 x 23.4 cm)

$4,170 ‒ 5,560
Rs 3,00,000 ‒ 4,00,000
This lot is offered at NO RESERVE
(Set of two)

18

a

5

a) Untitled
1958
Gouache on paper
11.5 x 14.5 in (29.2 x 36.8 cm)

b) Untitled
Circa 1950s
Gouache on paper
13 x 8 in (33 x 20.3 cm)

$4,865 ‒ 6,250
Rs 3,50,000 ‒ 4,50,000
This lot is offered at NO RESERVE
b (Set of two)

19

6

a) Untitled
Initialled in Tamil and dated ‘1.11.53’ (lower right)
1953
Pen and watercolour on paper
12 x 12.5 in (30.48 x 31.75 cm)

EXHIBITED
Self Portraits and other Early Drawings, Santiniketan: Nandan
Gallery, Kala Bhavana, 5 February ‒ 4 March 2020; New Delhi:
Art Heritage, 26 October ‒ 15 December 2020

b) Untitled
Circa 1982‒83
Watercolour on paper
10.25 x 14.5 in (26 x 36.8 cm)

c) Untitled
Initialled in Tamil and dated ‘25.8.52’ (lower left)
1952
Pen and watercolour on paper
6.5 x 8 in (16.5 x 20.3 cm)

EXHIBITED
Self Portraits and other Early Drawings, Santiniketan: Nandan
Gallery, Kala Bhavana, 5 February ‒ 4 March 2020; New Delhi:
Art Heritage, 26 October ‒ 15 December 2020

d) Untitled
1958
Pencil, ballpoint pen, crayon and watercolour on paper
11.5 x 8.5 in (21.5 x 29.2 cm)

EXHIBITED
Drawings of Women, presented by The Seagull Foundation
for the Arts at Santiniketan: Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhavana,
5 ‒ 14 February 2017; Patna: Bihar Museum, 3 ‒ 16 November
2017; Kolkata: Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 14 March
‒ 14 April 2018; New Delhi: Art Heritage, 13 August ‒ 9
September 2018; Hyderabad: Kalakriti Art Gallery, 20 October
‒ 1 November 2018; Ahmedabad: L&P Hutheesingh Visual
Art Centre, 20 November ‒ 2 December 2018

PUBLISHED
R Siva Kumar, Women Seen and Remembered: Drawings of
Women by K G Subramanyan, Kolkata: Seagull Books, 2017,
p. 18

$8,335 ‒ 11,115
Rs 6,00,000 ‒ 8,00,000

(Set of four)

20

ac

b
d

“Always inquisitive about the internal dynamics of form, he found the structural mechanics of Cubism answering
certain questions about the two‒dimensionality of Indian folk art, and vice versa. In the modernist question of his
early paintings in Baroda he often used linear patterning as the structural break‒up of the painting, or interchangeably,
as the construct of a body garment and accoutrement ‒ bird, lamp, studio bric‒a‒brac, etc.” (Nilima Sheikh, “A Post‒
Independence Initiative in Art,” Contemporary Art in Baroda, New Delhi: Tulika, 1997, p. 118)

21

7

a) Untitled
Initialled in Tamil and dated ‘17.9.51’ (lower right)
1951
Pen and watercolour on paper
9.75 x 6.25 in (24.7 x 15.8 cm)

b) Untitled
Initialled in Tamil and dated ‘1.10.53’ (lower right)
1953
Watercolour on paper
12 x 5.50 in (30.48 x 13.9 cm)

c) Untitled
1952
Pen and watercolour on paper
7.75 x 10 in (19.6 x 25.4 cm)

d) Untitled
Initialled in Tamil and dated ‘24.8.52’ (lower right)
1952
Pen and watercolour on paper
8 x 6.5 in (20.3 x 16.5 cm)

EXHIBITED
Self Portraits and other Early Drawings, Santiniketan:
Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhavana, 5 February ‒ 4 March 2020;
New Delhi: Art Heritage, 26 October ‒ 15 December 2020
$8,335 ‒ 11,115
Rs 6,00,000 ‒ 8,00,000
(Set of four)

22

ab

c
d
23

24

8

Dog
1956
Gouache on paper
20 x 24.5 in (50.8 x 62.2 cm)
$16,670 ‒ 25,000
Rs 12,00,000 ‒ 18,00,000

EXHIBITED
K G Subramanyan: A Retrospective, New Delhi: National
Gallery of Modern Art, 30 January ‒ 16 March 2003
PUBLISHED
K G Subramanyan: A Retrospective, New Delhi: National
Gallery of Modern Art, 2003, p. 125
Geeta Kapur, When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary
Cultural Practice in India, New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2000

25

26

9

Bull
Circa 1950s
Oil on board
29.5 x 35.5 in (74.9 x 90.2 cm)
$27,780 ‒ 41,670
Rs 20,00,000 ‒ 30,00,000

27

c

10

a a) Untitled
1956‒57
Pencil and charcoal on paper
21 x 14 in (53.3 x 35.5 cm)

b) Untitled
1956‒57
Colour pencil and charcoal on paper
28 x 20 in (71.1 x 50.8 cm)

c) Untitled
1956‒57
Pencil and charcoal on paper
14 x 21 in (35.5 x 53.3 cm)

$6,945 ‒ 9,725
Rs 5,00,000 ‒ 7,00,000
(Set of three)

In 1955, Subramanyan was awarded a British Council
Scholarship to study at the Slade School of Drawing. The

b

following two lots comprise drawings made by the artist
during his time in London, and upon his return to Baroda.

“While painting with gouache colours or oils, I can improvise at every stage.
This has its advantages and disadvantages. Constant change can undo an
original concept or cover it up with a new one. This could be a destructive
exercise. At one time when modern Western artists wanted to extract many
alternative visualizations from a basic visual motif, this became for them a
consuming exercise.”  K G SUBRAMANYAN

28

11

a) Untitled
1956‒57
Pencil on paper
14 x 21 in (35.5 x 53.3 cm)

b) Untitled
1956‒57
Colour pencil and charcoal on paper
28 x 20 in (71.1 x 50.8 cm)

c) Untitled
1956‒57
Colour pencil and charcoal on paper
28 x 20 in (71.1 x 50.8 cm)

$8,335 ‒ 11,115
Rs 6,00,000 ‒ 8,00,000
(Set of three)

a

bc

29

12

Untitled

Initialled in Tamil (lower right)
1959
Pencil and watercolour on paper
14 x 22.5 in (35.6 x 57.2 cm)

$4,170 ‒ 5,560
Rs 3,00,000 ‒ 4,00,000

EXHIBITED
Drawings of Women, presented by The Seagull Foundation for
the Arts at Santiniketan: Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhavana, 5 ‒ 14
February 2017; Patna: Bihar Museum, 3 ‒ 16 November 2017;
Kolkata: Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 14 March ‒ 14 April
2018; New Delhi: Art Heritage, 13 August ‒ 9 September 2018;
Hyderabad: Kalakriti Art Gallery, 20 October ‒ 1 November 2018;
Ahmedabad: L&P Hutheesingh Visual Art Centre, 20 November
‒ 2 December 2018

PUBLISHED
R Siva Kumar, Women Seen and Remembered: Drawings of Women
by K G Subramanyan, Kolkata: Seagull Books, 2017, p. 20

30

13

a) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

b) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

a

c) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

d) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

e) Untitled
b Ink on paper

9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)
$6,945 ‒ 9,725
Rs 5,00,000 ‒ 7,00,000
(Set of five)

EXHIBITED
IMPACT: design thinking and the visual arts in young India, Mumbai:
Chatterjee & Lal, 6 September ‒ 20 October 2018

c

“From 1959 to 1961 Subramanyan shifted base to Bombay
to join the Weavers’ Service Centre at the instance of
Pupul Jayakar. Once there, his improvisatory instincts opened a
new chapter in the textile history of modern India. He discovered
large stocks of inexpensive plaid lying unsold. In this so‒called
Bleeding Madras textile, the reds and blacks bled, so he adapted
a technique of discharge printing upon the checkered plaid
d and superimposed fluid patterns upon it to create a gestalt of
mixed layered patterns. The stunning result became so popular
nationwide and abroad that the government earned a great
profit from its sales. I remember how we all sported Bleeding
Madras shirts those days.” (Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, “The
World in Many Guises: K G Subramanyan and his Art,” Recent
Works on Paper, Kolkata: Seagull Foundation for the Arts, 2015)

It is the first time that these rare designs made by the artist
e made for the Weavers’ Service Centre will be offered on auction.

31

a 14

b a) Untitled
Ink on paper
c 9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

d b) Untitled
32 Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

c) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

d) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

$5,560 ‒ 8,335
Rs 4,00,000 ‒ 6,00,000

(Set of four)

EXHIBITED
IMPACT: design thinking and the visual arts
in young India, Mumbai: Chatterjee & Lal, 6
September ‒ 20 October 2018

15

a) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

b) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

c) Untitled
a Ink on paper

9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)
d) Untitled

Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)
e) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)
$6,945 ‒ 9,725
Rs 5,00,000 ‒ 7,00,000
b (Set of five)

EXHIBITED
IMPACT: design thinking and the visual arts
in young India, Mumbai: Chatterjee & Lal, 6
September ‒ 20 October 2018

c

de

33

a 16
b
c a) Untitled
34 Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

b) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

c) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

d) Untitled
Ink on paper
14.75 x 9.75 in (37.4 cm x 24.7 cm)

$5,560 ‒ 8,335
Rs 4,00,000 ‒ 6,00,000
(Set of four)
EXHIBITED
IMPACT: design thinking and the visual arts
in young India, Mumbai: Chatterjee & Lal, 6
September ‒ 20 October 2018

d

17

a) Untitled
Ink on paper
14.75 x 9.75 in (37.4 cm x 24.7 cm)

b) Untitled
Ink on paper
14.75 x 9.75 in (37.4 cm x 24.7 cm)

c) Untitled
Ink on paper
9.75 x 14.75 in (24.77x 37.47 cm)

d) Untitled
Ink on paper
14.75 x 9.75 in (37.4 cm x 24.7 cm)

a b $5,560 ‒ 8,335
Rs 4,00,000 ‒ 6,00,000
(Set of four)

EXHIBITED
IMPACT: design thinking and the visual arts
in young India, Mumbai: Chatterjee & Lal,
6 September ‒ 20 October 2018

c

“According to Subramanyan, tradition was dead until artists made it a
“living fire” through practice. This view of tradition led Subramanyan
to explore the intersection of the major and minor, or art and crafts, as
he experimented with drawing, oil painting, watercolor, sculpture, and
moralism alongside projects in set‒design, toy‒making, book illustration,
and art‒writing in the 1960s, 1970s, and afterward. These were efforts at
generating a national modernism akin to a hydra‒headed beast, a practice
in which diversity was privileged over purity and the past offered a dream of
the future.” (Sonal Khullar, “The New Primitives: K G Subramanyan,” Worldly
Affiliations, Oakland: University of California Press, 2015, p. 166)

d

35

2008
Portrait photograph by Jyoti Bhatt

36

“By the ‘60s [Subramanyan] was an exemplar of linguistic discipline and of
the artistic versatility that an art‒craft interface can lead to. [He] became an
artist with great expressive reach and range. His enlarged repertoire included paintings
structured with the communicative efficacy of language and design; printed and painted
textiles and woven sculptures with the aesthetic subtlety and expressive economy of
art; toys designed with wit and expressivity; illuminated books in which text and image
led one to the other; and murals in which details and the aggregate played hide‒and‒
seek of image and meaning.
From the ‘70s Subramanyan demonstrated — through his re‒articulation of the age‒old
techniques of terracotta and his retake on the popular genre of glass painting — how
an artist can tap older practices to add to the semantic resonances of one’s work. While
most modernists chose to conform to a personal style and brought their individuality
into sharp focus — but narrowed their range of skills and activities — Subramanyan
preferred to develop a personal language and use its syntactic plasticity to enlarge his
communicative reach. And it was a strategy that paid off richly.
Subramanyan’s late works were provoking and celebratory, teasing and subversive,
humane and irreverent at once. Done with scintillating spontaneity, they were not
merely expressive and complex like most things he had done in the past but were also
some of his most vibrant paintings. This came partly from his deep engagement with
the world and partly from the way he moved from one level of communication, or
expression, to another through calculated inflections of his visual idiom. And the ease
with which he did this — whether it was the little drawings, or the more thought‒out
paintings and expansive murals orchestrated to come alive at many levels — was truly
phenomenal.”
—R Siva Kumar

37

Circa early 1960s
K G Subramanyan working on a mural in
Lucknow
Personal album of K G Subramanyan

38

18 EXHIBITED
Drawings of Women, presented by The Seagull Foundation for the Arts at Santiniketan:
Untitled Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhavana, 5 ‒ 14 February 2017; Patna: Bihar Museum, 3 ‒ 16
November 2017; Kolkata: Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 14 March ‒ 14 April 2018;
Initialled in Tamil (lower right) New Delhi: Art Heritage, 13 August ‒ 9 September 2018; Hyderabad: Kalakriti Art
1962‒63 Gallery, 20 October ‒ 1 November 2018; Ahmedabad: L&P Hutheesingh Visual Art
Ink and crayon on paper Centre, 20 November ‒ 2 December 2018
30 x 22 in (76.2 x 55.9 cm)
PUBLISHED
$2,780 ‒ 4,170 R Siva Kumar, Women Seen and Remembered: Drawings of Women by K G
Rs 2,00,000 ‒ 3,00,000 Subramanyan, Kolkata: Seagull Books, 2017, p. 26

39

1960
K G Subramanyan with his daughter, Uma
Baroda
Photograph by Jyoti Bhatt

40

19 EXHIBITED
Sketches, Scribbles, Drawings, presented by The Seagull Foundation for the Arts at
Untitled Bangalore: National Gallery of Modern Art, 29 November ‒ 15 December 2014;
Abu Dhabi: India House, 10 ‒ 18 April 2015; Dubai: Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural
Initialled in Tamil (lower right) Foundation, 15 ‒ 14 April 2015; Bhubaneswar: Lalit Kala Akademi, Regional Centre, 2 ‒
1962-63 11 September 2015; Lucknow: Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre, 23 September ‒ 3
Pen and crayon on paper October 2015; Mumbai: Jehangir Art Gallery, 15 ‒ 21 December 2015; Chennai: Lalit
6.25 x 6 in (15.9 x 15.2 cm) Kala Akademi Regional Centre, 6 ‒ 16 January 2016; Santiniketan: Nandan Gallery,
Kala Bhavana, 5 ‒ 14 February 2016; Kolkata: The Harrington Street Arts Centre, 18
$2,780 ‒ 4,170 February ‒ 5 March 2016; Bhopal: Modern Art Gallery, Bharat Bhawan, 18 March ‒ 17
Rs 2,00,000 ‒ 3,00,000 April 2016; Patna: Bihar Lalit Kala Akademi, 24 June ‒ 5 July 2016; New Delhi: Aakriti
Art Gallery, 30 July ‒ 29 August 2016; Guwahati: Srimanti Sankaradeva Kalakshetra
Society, 1 ‒ 20 November 2016; Ernakulam: Durbar Hall, 19 April ‒ 19 May 2017; Panaji:
Sanskruti Bhavan, 5 ‒ 31 October 2017

PUBLISHED
K G Subramanyan, Sketches, Scribbles, Drawings, Kolkata: Seagull Books, 1999, p. 10

41

THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

The bright and dew‒drenched morning Just gave a silent nod.
Of a late December day; The next few days I saw both Lee and Sue
After a busy night All over the place.
When the ashram glowed with candles The teashop, library,
Observing Christmas feast. The various studios.
The mela has ended. The hallowed Havell Hall,
The tents and poles are down. The sal‒tree avenue.
The ground is littered with hay and red clay cups She was being shown
And bits of crumpled paper. The place she had seen before
The crows cry hoarse, About five years back.
Hop and pick around, In those few years
Squint with slanting heads. The place had changed a lot.
The Santhal girls who danced the whole night through This showing unwrapped her.
Huddle and sleep under the banyan tree In the next few months
Smelling of oil and sweat and mahua flowers. When winter passed and spring time tiptoed in,
Bleary‒eyed, the young men sit in groups Costumed in various colours,
Chat and giggle and pass the pipe around. She burst her old cocoon
Going to collect my mail I chance on Lee And stepped out with open wings.
And with her a little girl Her pear‒shaped head now seemed less like a pear.
Wrapped in a ragged shawl Her soft profile had a moving tenderness.
That concealed most of her Her eyes’ white sparkle gleamed like a fishing bait.
Except a pear‒shaped head, There was a candid charm in her smiles and speech.
And flat, brown, floating hair. She was still withdrawn but knew how to draw one near
Meet Sue, said Lee And hold one’s gaze without any artifice.
She is a good old friend. What brought us close I don’t remember now
I greeted her But as time passed and seasons cycled round
But she was too shy to smile This closeness spread and caught us in its web.

 K G SUBRAMANYAN

42

20

Untitled
Pen and watercolour on paper
17.5 x 11 in (44.4 x 27.9 cm)

$4,170 ‒ 5,560
Rs 3,00,000 ‒ 4,00,000

43

1968
K G Subramanyan working on a woven sculpture
Baroda Fine Arts Fair
Photograph by Jyoti Bhatt

44

a

b

21 EXHIBITED
The Ambivalent Gesture, Santiniketan: Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhavana, 5 ‒ 19 February
a) Untitled 2018; Patna: Bihar Museum, 29 September ‒ 16 October 2019
1966‒68 IMPACT: design thinking and the visual arts in young India, Mumbai: Chatterjee & Lal,
Marker pen on paper 6 September ‒ 20 October 2018
9 x 6 in (22.8 x 15.2 cm)
PUBLISHED
b) Untitled R Siva Kumar, The Ambivalent Gesture, Kolkata: Seagull Foundation for the Arts, 2019
1964‒66
Marker pen on paper
12 x 18 in (30.4 x 45.7 cm)

$9,725 ‒ 12,500
Rs 7,00,000 ‒ 9,00,000

(Set of two)

The subject of the two drawings in the present lot appear to be design studies for the artist’s textile works. “[The]
early 1960s saw Subramanyan’s emergence not only as an artist with a distinctive vision but also as a versatile artist
exploring different mediums and artistic functions. As part of this — beginning with his stint at the Handloom Board
(1959‒61) and until about the mid‒1970s — from time‒to‒time Subramanyan did woven sculptures. Occasionally,
along with students and colleagues, he also participated in creating innovative accoutrements for puppet and theatrical
performances in conjunction with the art fair at the Baroda Faculty of Fine Arts.” (R Siva Kumar, The Ambivalent Gesture,
Kolkata: Seagull Foundation for the Arts, 2019)

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22

Banaras Ghat
Initialled in Tamil (lower left)
1965
Oil on canvas
36 x 48 in (91.4 x 121.9 cm)
$41,670 ‒ 55,560
Rs 30,00,000 ‒ 40,00,000

The present lot is a rare example of Subramanyan’s
early period oil paintings. A similar canvas by the
artist titled Studio Table with Figure I, 1965, is in the
collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York (accession number 2017.107).
“The inventive apportioning of spaces to enhance or
contain the activity of the performing motifs, their
shapes, squiggles and flourishes, took imaginative
cues from the western Indian traditions of painting,
the manuscript illuminations. The additive nature
of such configurations and begun to be indicated in
the interactive mobility between grid and pattern,
suggesting independent performing space for each
motif within the general mis‒en‒scène.” (Nilima Sheikh,
“A Post‒Independence Initiative in Art,” Contemporary
Art in Baroda, New Delhi: Tulika, 1997, p. 120)

46

47

1967
K G Subramanyan painting
Baroda Fine Arts Fair
Photograph by Jyoti Bhatt

48

23 EXHIBITED

Untitled Drawings of Women, presented by The Seagull Foundation for the Arts at Santiniketan:
Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhavana, 5 ‒ 14 February 2017; Patna: Bihar Museum, 3 ‒ 16
Initialled in Tamil (lower centre) November 2017; Kolkata: Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 14 March ‒ 14 April 2018;
1962‒63 New Delhi: Art Heritage, 13 August ‒ 9 September 2018; Hyderabad: Kalakriti Art
Watercolour and ink on paper Gallery, 20 October ‒ 1 November 2018; Ahmedabad: L&P Hutheesingh Visual Art
14 x 18.5 in (35.6 x 47 cm) Centre, 20 November ‒ 2 December 2018

$4,170 ‒ 5,560 PUBLISHED
Rs 3,00,000 ‒ 4,00,000
R Siva Kumar, Women Seen and Remembered: Drawings of Women by K G
Subramanyan, Kolkata: Seagull Books, 2017, p. 29

“These paintings, which were essentially representations of figures in interiors, make it difficult to disentangle figures
from objects, and forms from space… [T]he interplay of figures and objects and the theatre they construed [is]
richly ambivalent.” (R Siva Kumar, Self Portraits and Other Early Drawings, Kolkata: Seagull Foundation for the Arts, 2020)

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