101 Born in 1940, Bikash Bhattacharjee honed his skills in academic realism at the Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship, Calcutta. He studied a variety of Indian and Western masters, including Abanindranath Tagore, Hemendranath Mazumdar, Rembrandt, Goya, Manet, Renoir, Munch, and Bacon, each of which contributed to his humanistic vision. However, rather than imitating their styles, they were “absorbed honestly and with attention to the techniques and imagery, a sensitive identification which was quietly transposed onto local reality and moods.” (Marta Jakimowicz‒Karle, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Bangalore: Kala Yatra, 1991, p. 5) Calcutta was the primary inspiration for Bhattacharjee, whose works personified the turbulent socio‒political scenario, struggle, death, and decay that he witnessed in the city as a young child during the Partition and in the ensuing decades. Though rooted in academic realism, the artist’s works are enveloped in a patina of strangeness, imparted through the distortion or erasure of features, surreal symbolism, and a mysterious colour palette, which lend layers of meaning to the painting. “His stylistic stand is thus poised somewhere between realism and the outer limits of surrealism. With his constant preoccupation with social realities, Bikash has little taste for digging out from deep within his individual self some dubious forms and figures for a surrealist construct of the unconscious.” (Manasij Majumder, “Scripting Social Reality,” Close to Events: Works of Bikash Bhattacharjee, New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2007, p. 229) “Whether I’m realistic, naturalistic or surreal, I do not know. It may be a combination of attitudes and techniques.” BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE
102 Likening himself to a photojournalist, Bhattacharjee believed in not just conveying an identifiable reality but telling an evocative story, as evident in the present lot. “The structural clarity of his imagery often recalls frames from the films by the legendary Satyajit Ray...in many of his portrait‒based images the characters come under the probing gaze of the artist the way in which in an intense psychological moment the camera indulgently lingers on the protagonist in the middle shot of a feature film frame. ‘The scene in front of you,’ [he says] like a single frame in a film, ‘is part of a larger one. You know something that has just happened and that there is more to follow.’” (Manasij Majumder, “Bikash Bhattacharjee,” Amit Mukhopadhyay ed., Bikash Bhattacharjee: A Retrospective, Kolkata: Emami Chisel Art, 2009, p. 15) A triptych, the present work depicts women (who were a frequent subject of the artist’s works) and children standing by a balcony, surrounded by a seemingly otherworldly natural environment. The balcony is reminiscent of the crumbling palatial homes that Bhattacharjee often spent hours observing and incorporated into his paintings. “A pervasive serenity prevails now showing human figures and nature in a tender directness but also unearthing a mysterious, even eerie sense of their archaic unity.” (Jakimowicz‒Karle, p. 41) While in the first panel, the woman and child have been painted in a realist style, in the next, the woman assumes an iconic stance reminiscent of the depiction of deities in Indian miniatures and Early Bengal oils. With the details left vague, the latter appears ghost‒like. In the third panel, the artist skillfully uses colour to distort the figure’s features and create a sense of unease. The present work also exemplifies Bhattacharjee’s mastery over his craft through which he created compelling canvases that conveyed not merely social reality but also his unique insight as an artist. “It was between his willing submission to the rigours and discipline of craft and the creative drive that let his art etch and contour the unique personality of the artist. And this dialectic worked wonders in all his great canvases whatever be the medium, oil or water colour, crayon or charcoal, all of which he handled with the energy and finesse of an old master. The primary appeal of each of his masterpieces, even to the lay viewer, is the masterly execution of the image—its edgy surface, smooth, bristly or weighty brushwork, details of textural or tonal wonders, mimetic vividness or expressional intensity and the neat tidy structure even when the image is teasingly oblique or obscurely enigmatic or hermetically fashioned.” (Majumder, Mukhopadhyay ed., p. 15)
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104 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION, UAE 42 BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE (1940‒2006) Untitled Signed and dated thrice ‘Bikash 98’ (along the lower edge) 1998 Oil on canvas 58 x 138 in (147.5 x 350.5 cm) $375,000 ‒ 475,000 Rs 3,07,50,000 ‒ 3,89,50,000 (Triptych) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist Private Collection, Kolkata
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106 “The ship is an invitation to paradox: one remains stationary while being in motion on it, and so it presents itself as the most fitting rendition of Sabavala’s underlying theme of passage between a here and an elsewhere that shift definition all the time.” (Ranjit Hoskote, “Coming Home to a Strange Land: 1951‒1959,” The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai: Eminence Designs, 2005, p. 68)
107
108 Jehangir Sabavala Image courtesy of Shirin Sabavala
109 Born in 1922 in Bombay, Jehangir Sabavala studied at prestigious art institutions around the world, each of which contributed to his maturity as a painter with a distinctive style that transcended its original influences and defies classification. He earned his diploma at the J J School of Art, Bombay, in 1944 after which he enrolled at the Heatherley School of Art in London from 1945 to 1947 where he was schooled in British academic techniques and naturalism. Between 1947 and 1949, he focussed on the study of luminosity, stroke, and colour associated with Impressionism at the Académie Julian, Paris. Shortly after, he was introduced to the tenets of Cubism—which would later become an integral part of his technique—under the tutelage of André Lhote at the Académie Lhote between 1949 and 1951. Since the beginning of his career in the early 1950s, Sabavala worked most often in oils, creating landscapes, seascapes and figures that were aesthetically sublime and laced with philosophical thought. In a letter to his biographer, poet and art critic Ranjit Hoskote, the artist once remarked that landscapes were a “liberation, for the first time, from the various disciplines and schools of painting which were my equipment. I felt instantly at home with a scene that could be moulded into whatever form that I wished it to take. This eventually developed into my mountain/cloud/sea/dune forms. These became distinctly mine and not as depicted by anyone else.” (Ranjit Hoskote, “From Landscape to Cosmos: 1962‒1964,” The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai: Eminence Designs, 2005, p. 98) Located between the real and the ideal, the artist’s landscapes and seascapes were inspired by his extensive travels across Europe and India. He would often sketch various forms that he observed in a notebook, later combining elements and “colour notes” from different drawings to create a single canvas. His paintings are meticulously constructed with highly nuanced colour planes, resulting in images that are unique in their restraint while appearing emotionally charged. The present lot, painted in 1988, is an eminent example of Sabavala’s mastery over light, colour, and texture that set him apart from his modernist peers. The artist often preferred a muted palette with veiled light and middle tones over pure colours and intense imagery. Drawing on the Cubist influences of André Lhote and Lyonel Feininger—both of whom he regarded highly—he built scenes by wedging together a series of geometric planes. These receding planes give each canvas an illusory sense of depth, and in this work, are used to depict a ship adrift on a choppy sea, simultaneously evoking a sense of stillness and motion.
110 Hoskote remarks, “In Sabavala’s paintings of the 1980s and 1990s, the universe is heard to speak in a voice capable of many nuances. ‘One is moved,’ he says, ‘by the sweep, the drama, the magnificent changeability of nature.’ Transposing his interior drama of turmoil and exhilaration onto the tide, the wind, the awesome spectacle of a storm rending the earth open, the artist offers homage to the cosmos, the original creation.” (Hoskote, “A Crystalline Alchemy: 1983‒1988,” p. 144) Noting the classical influences underlying Sabavala’s modernist style, writer Richard Lannoy (who had been closely associated with the artist since their time as students in London) observes that he painstakingly developed a technique that is quite rare in modern oil painting, “based on transparency, glazes, effects of inwardly glowing objects obtained by exploiting the white of the canvas as a kind of back lighting. This gives the surface of his paintings a glistening crystalline sheen. The individual hues and tones, being mixed separately in subtly but cleanly differentiated gradations, impart to the picture surface a cleanness and clarity of hue which is very unusual…His mastery of light effects is based on a lifetime’s study of natural Indian light without resort to banal naturalism.” (Richard Lannoy, “The Paradoxical Alliance: A Portrait Essay by Richard Lannoy,” The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai: Eminence Designs, 2005, p. 16) By presenting an idealised, rather than realistic, version of nature that was transmuted by his brush through constant improvisations, Sabavala skilfully balanced precision of technique with an artistic quest towards the sublime. It is these qualities that have earned him a distinguished position in the canon of modern Indian art. Affirms art critic V S Vasudev, “Today Jehangir Sabavala’s paintings reveal the refinement of a poetic mind, the abstract sign posts of a philosophical search for values, the painterly technique realised after years of experience, and, above all, the singular note that keeps alive the wonder in creation.” (Pria Devi, Jehangir Sabavala, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1984) From the 1960s‒70s onwards, Sabavala broke away from the formalism of structured Cubism to produce otherworldly renditions of nature with a highly nuanced yet painterly understanding of light and colour. The Star that Beckons, 1968 The Green Cape, 1974 Of Cloud and Air II, 1977
111 PROPERTY OF A LADY, LONDON 43 JEHANGIR SABAVALA (1922‒2011) Storm Signed and dated ‘Sabavala ‘88’ (lower left) 1988 Oil on canvas 43.5 x 59.5 in (110.5 x 151 cm) $400,000 ‒ 600,000 Rs 3,28,00,000 ‒ 4,92,00,000 PROVENANCE Saffronart, 1‒4 December 2003, lot 24 Acquired from the above
112 Jagdish Swaminathan began painting in earnest by the late 1950s, and in 1962, he formed the artists’ collective, Group 1890, which opposed both the idealism of the Bengal School and mannerism of European Modernism. Though the group was short‒ lived, Swaminathan continued his quest to create a new kind of Indian art that was independent of Western influences but also wasn’t merely an imitation of Indian art traditions. He experimented with totemic symbols, influenced by tribal and folk art, in a constant quest to simplify them and create a new pictorial language. After studying Pahari miniatures in the late 1960s, he began a series called the Colour Geometry of Space, of which the present lot is a part, in an attempt to understand the relation of colour to space. In a 1966 catalogue for an exhibition of the same name at Gallery Chemould in New Delhi, he notes, “For the last two years or so certain geometrical forms had been appearing and reappearing in my work…My intention was not the analysis of space. It was while working with these geometrical forms in colour that space was revealed to me, space that is beyond analysis.” (Jagdish Swaminathan, “Colour Geometry of Space,” Transits of a Wholetimer, New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 2012, p. 88) The Colour Geometry of Space series explored flat planes and compositions with forms which were distinct from the geometric abstraction of the West. Art critic Geeta Kapur notes that this phase of the artist’s oeuvre was significant because of the painterly techniques evolved at this time. “The palette was lightened to iridescent hues like pink, mauve, pale green, and lemon yellow, and the painting was conceived entirely in terms of colour.” (Geeta Kapur, “J. Swaminathan,” Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1978, p. 201) This style was further influenced by the folk art of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and Tantric art, which Swaminathan understood as having one objective— “not to represent reality or even analyse it, but to create that para‒natural image which inspires man to contend with reality.” (Swaminathan, “New Promise,” p. 108) Through the use of simple geometric shapes, the artist sought to awaken a primitive association buried deep within the collective consciousness of man. He explains, “...the arrangement of geometric forms generates memory associations whose roots are in the racial, collective psyche. Thus a triangle placed on top of a rectangle tangentially evokes the thought of a temple and the upward thrust or the arrangement suggest erotic implications. The introduction of the representational content in terms of colour geometry gives birth to psycho‒symbolic connotations.” (Jagdish Swaminathan, “The Cube and the Rectangle,” Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1995, p. 22) Jagdish Swaminathan © Jyoti Bhatt The catalogue for Colour Geometry of Space, an exhibition of Swaminathan’s works at Gallery Chemould, New Delhi, in 1966. Image courtesy of Gallery Espace, New Delhi
113 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION, UK 44 JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN (1928‒1994) Colour Geometry of Space 1966 Oil on canvas 24 x 36 in (61 x 91.5 cm) $50,000 ‒ 70,000 Rs 41,00,000 ‒ 57,40,000 PROVENANCE Acquired from Aicon Gallery, New York EXHIBITED Transits of a Wholetimer, New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 8 September ‒ 6 October 2012 PUBLISHED Transits of a Wholetimer: J Swaminathan: Years 1950‒69, New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 2012, p. 83 (illustrated) Richard Bartholomew, The Art Critic, Noida: BART, 2012, p. 216 (illustrated)
114 “It was not merely outward appearances which were fascinating but they were vibrant with an inner life of their own, very deep and profound, which left an everlasting impression on my artistic sensibility. I could feel a new visual language emerging from the depths of an experience.” RAM KUMAR
115 Through the 1950s, Ram Kumar painted human subjects to convey his own views on the pathos and anguish of the human condition. But by the end of the decade, the figure began to recede from his works and he turned to abstraction to depict cityscapes and landscapes. The artist’s journey to Benaras with contemporary and friend M F Husain in 1960 was a crucial catalyst in this transition. Remarks writer and critic Ranjit Hoskote, “By banishing the figure from his kingdom of shadows, Ram Kumar was able to emphasize the nullification of humanity, and to deploy architecture and landscape as metaphors articulating cultural and psychological fragmentation, the bondage of an imposed destiny that strangled the will to liberation and self‒knowledge.” (Ranjit Hoskote, “The Poet of the Visionary Landscape,” Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, Gagan Gill ed., New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 37) The two artists stayed at the home of writer Munshi Premchand’s son Shripat Rai, and would explore the city and its ghats independently, reconvening at the end of the day to share their experiences with each other. While it was an inspiring trip for both, Benaras left a lasting impression on Kumar and became a central subject of his works in the following decades. He was moved by the sights of the buzzing city where life and death co‒existed in close proximity— Manikarnika Ghat where crowds thronged to cremate their dead, boats anchored at the ghats, and the narrow maze of streets with temples and dilapidated old homes haphazardly stacked together fascinated him. Ram Kumar © Jyoti Bhatt
116 PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED LADY, USA 45 RAM KUMAR (1924‒2018) Untitled (Benaras) Circa 1960s Oil on board 29.25 x 21.75 in (74.5 x 55 cm) $200,000 ‒ 300,000 Rs 1,64,00,000 ‒ 2,46,00,000 PROVENANCE Sotheby’s, London, 6 October 2015, lot 22 Private Collection, UK Property from a Private International Collection Kumar Gallery, New Delhi Saffronart, New Delhi, 8 September 2016, lot 64 EXHIBITED Modernist Art from India: Approaching Abstraction, New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 4 May ‒ 16 October 2012 Modernist Art from India: Radical Terrain, New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 16 November 2012 ‒ 29 April 2013 PUBLISHED Beth Citron, Modernist Art from India, New York: Rubin Museum of Art (illustrated) Keshav Malik, Spirit Set Free: Golden Jubilee 1955‒2005, New Delhi: Kumar Gallery, 2005, p.182 (illustrated) The artist once remarked, “Benares is important for me both as an artist and as a human being, the first paintings came at a point when I wanted to develop elements in figurative painting and go beyond it, my first visit to the city invoked an emotional reaction as it had peculiar associations. But such romantic ideas were dispelled when I came face to face with reality. There was so much pain and sorrow of humanity. As an artist it became a challenge to portray this agony and suffering, its intensity required the use of symbolic motifs, so my Benares is of a representative sort.” (Seema Bawa, “Ram Kumar: Artistic Intensity of an Ascetic,” artnewsnviews.com, online) Kumar chose an emotive rather than literal representation of Benaras and imagined the city in his paintings not as teeming with activity, but as melancholic, desolate and devoid of human figures. “What he was interested in depicting was not the jostling crowds at the ghats; not the hubbub of rites; not the hope, or frenzy, or anticipated bliss of the people; but the silent waiting that underlay it all.” (Geeta Kapur, “Ram Kumar: City‒Exile,” Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd, 1978, p. 75) The present lot suggests an aerial view of a cluster of small buildings rendered, in thick impasto, as jumbled and tightly‒packed squares perched on the banks of the Ganga, perhaps recalling the artist’s first impression of Benares, as a “ghostly deserted city” when he arrived late on a cold winter night. The muted colour palette of browns, greys, and greens is reminiscent of the muddy colours of the river and typical of this period in his oeuvre. Notes writer and art critic Ranjit Hoskote, Ram Kumar “addressed himself to the formal aberrations of mismatched planes, jamming the horizontal perspective against top views inspired by site‒mapping and aerial photography, and locking the muddy, impasto‒built riverbank constructions into a Cubist geometrical analysis. Gradually, the architecture drained away from his canvases: society itself passed from his concerns, until, during the late 1960s, his paintings assumed the character of abstractionist hymns to nature.” (Hoskote, pp. 37–38)
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118 FROM THE COLLECTION OF JANE AND KITO DE BOER Jane and Kito de Boer’s collection is a rare survey of Indian painting from the late 19th century to the present day, covering major movements including photography, the Bengal School, the Progressive Artists from Bombay, and many different developments in Delhi and its environs since Independence. This collection, one of the largest in private hands, is remarkable for its broad historical scope and represents critical periods in Indian art history. Besides notable names including F N Souza, M F Husain, and Somnath Hore, the collection also highlights the best works of lesser‒known artists such as Prokash Karmakar, Nikhil Biswas, and J Sultan Ali who played a significant role in the development of Indian art. Alongside their strong aesthetics, the significance of many of the works in the collection is deepened by the de Boers’ personal association or encounters with several of the artists like Rameshwar Broota and Laxma Goud. In their words, “One of the most important aspects of the collection is that it is a personal journey: it is our journey…. We are individuals following our passion and our collection is the sum of what we see and whom we meet. We have the art collection we have, with all its twists and turns.” Saffronart is delighted to present the following 15 lots in the live sale and 50 lots in our online sale. Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection offers an insightful view into the de Boers’ illustrious collection of works that represent pivotal periods in Indian art history.
119 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 46 F N SOUZA (1924‒2002) Untitled Signed and dated ‘Souza 1975’ (upper left) 1975 Marker on paper 10.5 x 8 in (26.5 x 20.5 cm) $3,000 ‒ 5,000 Rs 2,46,000 ‒ 4,10,000
120 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 47 F N SOUZA (1924‒2002) Untitled (Seated Woman) Signed and dated ‘Souza/ 1949’ (lower left) 1949 Ink on paper 13 x 8 in (33 x 20.5 cm) $3,000 ‒ 4,000 Rs 2,46,000 ‒ 3,28,000 PUBLISHED Yashodhara Dalmia, “Modernism Reinvented in Bombay: The Art of the Progressives,” Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 116 (illustrated)
121 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 48 M F HUSAIN (1915‒2011) Untitled Pastel on paper 20 x 28.5 in (51 x 72.5 cm) $5,000 ‒ 7,000 Rs 4,10,000 ‒ 5,74,000 PUBLISHED Yashodhara Dalmia, “Modernism Reinvented in Bombay: The Art of the Progressives,” Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 126 (illustrated)
122 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 49 K LAXMA GOUD (b.1940) a) Untitled Signed and dated in Telugu (lower right) 1995 Pen and ink on paper 11 x 7.75 in (28 x 20 cm) b) Untitled (Nandi) Signed and dated in Telugu (upper left) 1980 Pen and ink on board 10 x 7.5 in (25.5 x 19 cm) $2,500 ‒ 3,500 Rs 2,05,000 ‒ 2,87,000 (Set of two) a b
123 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 50 CHITTAPROSAD BHATTACHARYA (1915‒1978) Untitled (Masol) Dated and inscribed ‘26 Oct’ 52/ Masol’ (lower right) 1952 Dry pastel on paper 21 x 28.5 in (53.5 x 72.5 cm) $5,000 ‒ 7,000 Rs 4,10,000 ‒ 5,74,000 PROVENANCE Acquired from DAG, New Delhi PUBLISHED Kishore Singh ed., Chittaprosad: A Retrospective 1915‒1978 2, New Delhi: DAG, 2011, p. 474 (illustrated)
124 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 51 SOMNATH HORE (1921‒2006) Untitled Initialled and dated as illustrated 1983 Watercolour and dry pastel on paper 8.5 x 11 in (21.5 x 28 cm) (each) $18,000 ‒ 24,000 Rs 14,76,000 ‒ 19,68,000 (Set of nineteen) From the nineteen works eighteen are horizontal and one is vertical PROVENANCE The Collection of Sara Abraham Acquired from the above PUBLISHED Sona Datta, "The Paradox of Modernism: Art in Bengal After Independence", Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 168 (illustrated)
125 Somnath Hore’s early experience of war and famine in Bengal in the 20th century went on to shape his artistic consciousness. As a young artist documenting the peasantry on behalf of the Communist Party, he cut his teeth on figurative works of the oppressed agitating to stop injustice done against them. “In Hore’s fragile bodies, the human form is transgressed and transformed. Yet, the humanity Hore constructs takes the form of alienated, vulnerable individuals.” (Sona Datta, “The Paradox of Modernism: Art in Bengal After Independence”, Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 169) These 80s watercolours were made during a notable period of the artist’s life, when he was emerging from making his famous abstract Wounds series, and was beginning again to experiment with bronze. This lot is a succinct distillation of his primary concerns. “The masses continue to act as his protagonists. In one work, a man throws his arms up in despair while in another a skeletal figure leans against a wall. His untitled watercolours represent the collective agony of a people stripped of their humanity.” (Datta, Dean and Tillotson eds., p. 161, 169)
126 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 52 GOPAL GHOSE (1913‒1980) a) Untitled Signed in Bengali and dated ‘59’ (lower right) 1959 Pastel on paper 10 x 13.5 in (25.5 x 34.5 cm) b) Untitled Signed in Bengali and dated ‘59’ (lower left) and signed in Bengali (lower right) 1959 Pastel and watercolour on paper 13 x 14.5 in (33 x 37 cm) $3,000 ‒ 4,000 Rs 2,46,000 ‒ 3,28,000 (Set of two) PROVENANCE Acquired from DAG, New Delhi a b
127 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 53 BIRESHWAR SEN (1897‒1974) a) Untitled Signed and dated ‘B. Sen/ 65’ (lower left) 1965 Ink and wash on paper 5 x 7 in (12.5 x 18 cm) b) Untitled Signed and dated ‘B. Sen/ 65’ (lower left) 1965 Ink and wash on paper 5 x 7 in (12.5 x 18 cm) c) Untitled Signed and dated ‘B. Sen/ 65’ (lower left) 1965 Ink and wash on paper 5 x 7 in (12.5 x 18 cm) $5,000 ‒ 7,000 Rs 4,10,000 ‒ 5,74,000 (Set of three) a bc
128 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 54 J SULTAN ALI (1920‒1990) Untitled Signed in Devnagari and signed and dated ‘Sultan Ali ‘90’ (lower centre) 1990 Ink and pencil on paper 20.25 x 29 in (51.5 x 73.5 cm) $4,000 ‒ 6,000 Rs 3,28,000 ‒ 4,92,000
129 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 55 KRISHNA REDDY (1925‒2018) a) Sorrow of the World Signed ‘N. Krishna Reddy’ (lower right), inscribed “‘Sorrow of the World”’ (lower centre) and further inscribed ‘Imp. by the artist 14/25’ (lower left) Mixed colour intaglio on paper 11.5 x 10 in (29 x 25.5 cm) This work is inscribed ‘Imp by the artist’, indicating it was printed by the artist himself. Fourteenth from a limited edition of twenty‒five. b) Between Many & the One Signed ‘N. Krishna Reddy’ (lower right), inscribed “‘Between Many & the One”’ (lower centre) and further inscribed ‘Imp. by the artist XI/XXV’ (lower left) Mixed colour intaglio on paper Print size: 13.5 x 19.5 in (34 x 49.5 cm) Sheet size: 15.25 x 22.5 in (38.5 x 57 cm) This work is inscribed ‘Imp. by the artist’, indicating it was printed by the artist himself. Eleventh from a limited edition of twenty‒five. EXHIBITED Abby Grey and Indian Modernism: Selections from the NYU Art Collection, New York: Grey Art Gallery, 13 January ‒ 4 April 2015 (another from the edition) PUBLISHED Susan Hapgood and Ranjit Hoskote, Abby Grey and Indian Modernism: Selections from the NYU Art Collection, New York: Grey Art Gallery, 2015, p. 85 (illustrated, another from the edition) $3,000 ‒ 4,000 Rs 2,46,000 ‒ 3,28,000 (Set of two) a b
130 130 The violent milieu of Prokash Karmakar’s early life drew him to the works of Picasso as a student in France. “He grew increasingly sensitive towards Picasso, becoming inspired by his depictions of violence and his paintings of bullfighting. The theme struck a chord with Karmakar, who had witnessed armed violence during the Partition protests. The suppressed agitation in his mind translated in the painted image being distorted and contorted, even though the subject matter remained perceptible.” (India’s French Connection: Indian Artists in France, New Delhi: DAG, 2018, p. 384) The present lot is an example of what art historian Sona Datta describes as Karmakar using “everyday disorder as a vehicle to express his inner feelings, his paintings reminisce on the past: some are personal, some are recollected from nightmares rather than dreams and some are drawn from the darkest moments of human history.” (Sona Datta, “The Paradox of Modernism: Art in Bengal After Independence”, Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 160‒161)
131 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 56 PROKASH KARMAKAR (1933‒2014) Untitled Signed and dated in Devnagari (lower right) 1966 Oil on canvas 46 x 71.5 in (117 x 181.5 cm) $10,000 ‒ 15,000 Rs 8,20,000 ‒ 12,30,000 PUBLISHED India's French Connection: Indian Artists in France, New Delhi: DAG, 2018, p. 388 (illustrated) Sona Datta, "The Paradox of Modernism: Art in Bengal After Independence", Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 162‒163 (illustrated)
132 Rameshwar Broota with the present lot. Image reproduced from The Stare of Destiny: Rameshwar Broota – Masterpiece XXXII, New Delhi: DAG, 2018
133 An accomplished portraitist, Rameshwar Broota has centred the human form in his practice, specifically the male figure, for most of his career. This preoccupation can be seen as early as his figurative works from the late 1960s that focus on the emaciated, taut strength of labourers’ bodies. Drawn to “the tensile strength of their rippling muscles as they pushed and pulled and grappled with heavy loads or worked with hammer and other tools”, he created works which “invested them with heroic dimensions, an ode to rugged fortitude.” (Ella Datta, “Archaeology of Experience,” Rameshwar Broota, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2004, p. 12). An impulsive act led Broota to develop a unique technique to excavate the primal strength of man from his canvas: impatient to get started before the wash of paint on his canvas had dried, he picked up a blade and began to scratch out a form. “The rhythmic scraping of the pigment is then modulated through variations of pressure applied by the hand. Broota has indeed improvised his unique technique by overlapping procedures of painting and scraping or scratching the layers, for precision of contours, textures, and to draw out anatomies hidden under the immediate skin. The mind and body are equally challenged in this process that demands long hours of disciplined movement of hand, intimate contact of the eye with the working surface and a regulated body posture that supports the act of such manic intensity.” (Roobina Karode, Rameshwar Broota: Interrogating the Male Body, New Delhi: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, 2015, p. 150) From this technique was born the Man series of the 80s where Broota’s nude male subjects were shorn of clothes and other social markers to be restored to a primal state; his naked male forms exuded a primordial strength. After a foray into abstraction in the 90s, the artist returned to the male figure in the new millennium, when he incorporated his long‒held interest in photography into his established paint‒scratching process of portraiture. He would first photograph the part of the body he intended to draw, modify it as he needed on the computer, and then recreate the image on a painted canvas by hand. In his Confrontation series, of which lot 57 is a part, the strong and vigorous male body of the 80s makes a return, visually marked by the ravages of time. Man’s naked, headless torso is introduced to the industrial forms that he has made but which now threaten to overwhelm him. Against a spare, dark background, the human body, now old and soft, stands in startling and alarming contrast to the hard and angular man‒ made form that threatens its very existence. “Broota’s paintings from his early phases metamorphosed man and nature on monumental canvases, but in Confrontation, he juxtaposes man and industrial/architectural components, articulating here the friction between vulnerable human flesh and sharp built fragments. This is the human directly placed in confrontation with concrete angularities and metallic chains, threatened by an urban ‘invasion’ or a menacing city. This up close encounter is amplified by an imagined dark ambience in the painting, where everything else is meticulously nullified to alert us to the impending catastrophe.” (Roobina Karode, Rameshwar Broota: Interrogating the Male Body, New Delhi: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, 2015, p. 150). Rameshwar Broota’s singular technique, which is a result of a long meditative artistic process, is a fitting expression for his changing relationship with his long‒standing subject.
134 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 57 RAMESHWAR BROOTA (b.1941) Confrontation III 2001 Oil on canvas 100 x 100 in (254 x 254 cm) $120,000 ‒ 180,000 Rs 98,40,000 ‒ 1,47,60,000 (Diptych) PROVENANCE Acquired from Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi EXHIBITED Rameshwar Broota: Recent Paintings, New Delhi: Shridharani Gallery, 10 ‒ 19 December 2001 Counterparts: Recent Paintings by Rameshwar Broota, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 14 ‒ 21 February 2009; New Delhi: Shridharani Gallery, 27 February ‒ 8 March 2009 Visions of Interiority: Interrogating the Male Body, Rameshwar Broota ‒ A Retrospective, New Delhi: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, 14 October 2014 ‒ 1 March 2015 Rameshwar Broota: Visions of Interiority, Online: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, June 2020 PUBLISHED Keshav Malik and Gayatri Sinha, Rameshwar Broota: Recent Paintings, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2001, p. 10, 23 (illustrated) Yashodhara Dalmia and Salima Hashmi eds., Memory, Metaphor, Mutations: Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 120 (illustrated) Roobina Karode, Counterparts: Recent Paintings by Rameshwar Broota, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2009, p. 62 (illustrated) Roobina Karode, Rameshwar Broota: Interrogating the Male Body, New Delhi: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, 2015, p. 148, 232 (illustrated) Kishore Singh ed., The Stare of Destiny: Rameshwar Broota – Masterpiece XXXII, New Delhi: DAG, 2018, p. 24 (illustrated) “Rameshwar Broota in Conversation With Rob Dean & Kito de Boer,” Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 255 (illustrated)
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136 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 58 RAMESHWAR BROOTA (b.1941) Mapping Space I 2018 Pen and ink and epoxy resin on canvas 40 x 40 in (101.5 x 101.5 cm) $30,000 ‒ 50,000 Rs 24,60,000 ‒ 41,00,000 PROVENANCE Acquired from Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi EXHIBITED Rameshwar Broota: Scripted in Time, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2 ‒ 20 February 2018 Rameshwar Broota: Scripted in Time II, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 30 April ‒ 4 May 2019 In constant search of something new, Broota has once again taken to a new medium. His recent series of works, like lot 58, are a product of his love for the “magical quality” of resin. He returns to abstraction in the present lot 58 to create a monochromatic work strikingly mapped by horizontal lines. These new works in epoxy resin are a continued meditation on his old theme of violence. “It changes their meaning, adding another layer that goes beyond their visual play and glowing surface. Resin mummifies, and when we consider the choice of Broota’s objects, we cannot miss the fact that they hint at a critique of violence”. (Georgina Maddox, “An Exhibition of Rameshwar Broota’s New Work Makes a Subtle Comment on the Violence in Our Lives,” The Hindu, 10 February 2018, online)
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138 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 59 NIKHIL BISWAS (1930‒1966) Clown Series Signed ‘Nikhil’ (centre left) Ink on paper pasted on cloth 43.25 x 115 in (110 x 292 cm) $15,000 ‒ 20,000 Rs 12,30,000 ‒ 16,40,000 This work will be shipped in a roll PUBLISHED Sona Datta, "The Paradox of Modernism: Art in Bengal After Independence", Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 155 (illustrated)
139 Nikhil Biswas’ short life was marked by an impressive level of artistic achievement. The founder of the Calcutta Group of Painters identified deeply with the figure of the clown. According to him he was, “‘like the clown; a misfit in society’. His drawings are tortured, as if driven by the tyranny of the line, a frenetic mark‒making which enabled him to pour his pain into his work.” He was known to have visited the circus to be able to better portray the “deeper intensity” he sought in clowns. To him, the clown “represents a human encounter at the fringes of society. He saw in clowns a familiar image of people hovering on the brink as well as individuals concealed behind a mask.” (Sona Datta, “The Paradox of Modernism: Art in Bengal After Independence”, Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 154)
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143 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 60 LALA DEEN DAYAL (1844‒1905) Untitled (Deendayal's Princely Rulers) Circa early 20th century Set of 81 carbon print portraits by Lala Deen Dayal, with images approximately 9.75 x 7.75 in (25 x 19.5 cm) $7,000 ‒ 9,000 Rs 5,74,000 ‒ 7,38,000 The list of photographs as follows: 1. The Thakore Saheb of Virpur 2. H.H. The Late Raja of Khilchipur 3. The Thakore Saheb of Kotda Sangani 4. H.H. The Raja of Narsingarh 5. H.H. The Maharana of Udaipur 6. H.H. The Raja of Rutlam 7. H.H. The Raja of Rajgarh 8. H.H. The Raja of Chamba 9. H.H. The Maharaja of Charkhari 10. H.H. The Raja of Lunawada 11. H.H. The Late Nawab of Radhanpur 12. H.H. The Maharaja of Datia 13. H.H The Maharaja of Patiala 14. H.H. The Raja of Kahlur 15. The Maharja of Darbhanga (2) 16. H.H. The Raja of Baria 17. Durbar Shri Lukhman Wala of Jetpur 18. H.H The Maharaja of Kolhapur 19. H.H. The Ex‒Maharaja Holkar of Indore 20. The Maharaja Bahadur of Burdwan 21. The Late Maharaja of Hutwa 22. H.H. The Maharaja of Jaipur 23. H.H. The Gaekwar of Baroda 24. H.H. The Maharaja Sindhia of Gwalior 25. H.H. The Thakore Sahib of Gondal 26. Maharaja Bahadur Sir J M Tagore 27. The Chief of Vadia 28. The Chief of Patri 29. The Chief of Jasdan 30. H.H. The Jam Sahib of Navanagar 31. H.H. The Nawab of Balasinor 32. H.H. The Maha Rao of Kutch 33. The Maharaja of Bikanir 34. H.H. The Raja of Sailana 35. H.H. The Rana Sahib of Porbandar 36. H.H. The Nawab of Junagadh 37. H.H. The Raja of Sitamau 38. H.H. The Raja of Faridkot 39. H.H. The Maharaja of Alwar 40. H.H. The Raja of Sunth 41. H.H. The Late Maharaja Sindhia of Gwalior 42. H.H. The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir 43. H.H. The Maharao of Sirohi 44. The Maharaja of Mysore 45. H.H. The Raj Sahib of Dhrangadhra 46. H.H. The Maharaja of Travancore 47. H.H. The Late Raja of Sirmur 48. H.H. The Late Maharaja of Bhavnagar 49. H.H. The Thakore Sahib of Morvi 50. H.H. The Raja of Jhind 51. H.H. The Divan of Palanpur 52. H.H. The Maharaja of Kishengarh 53. H.H. The Maharaja of Benares 54. H.H. The Nawab of Rampur 55. H.H. The Thakore Sahib of Wadhwan 56. H.H The Maharaja of Idar 57. H.H. The Raja of Kapurthala 58. H.H. The Raja of Sirmur 59. H.H. The Late Raja of Dhar 60. H.H. The Nawab of Bahawalpur 61. H.H. The Late Raja of Mysore 62. H.H The Nawab of Jaora 63. H.H. The Maharaja of Bhavnagar 64. H.H. The Thakore Sahib of Rajkote 65. H.H. The Raja of Pudukota 66. H.H. The Raja of Rajpipla 67. H.H. The Nawab of Cambay 68. H.H. The Raja of Cochin 69. H.H. The Maharao Raja of Bundi 70. H.H The Maharaja of Cooch Behar 71. H.H. The Raja of Nabha 72. Raja Sir Amar Singh Bahadur of Kashmir 73. The Maharaja of Mymensingh 74. H.H. The Thakore Sahib of Dhrol 75. H.H. The Nizam of Deccan 76. H.H. The Nawab of Janjira 77. H.H. The Raja of Chota Udaipur 78. H.H. The Raj Saheb of Wankaner 79. H.H. The Thakore Sahib of Limbdi 80. H.H. The Thakore Saheb of Palitana
144 WINTER ONLINE AUCTION 1314 DECEMBER 2023
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147 Lots 61 ‒ 82 Closing Time: Thursday, 14 December 2023 Closing time: 8 pm (IST) 9.30 am (US Eastern Time)
148 61 MADHAV SATWALEKAR (1915‒2006) Untitled Signed and dated in Devnagari (lower right) 1987 Oil on canvas 24 x 32 in (61 x 81.5 cm) Rs 5,00,000 ‒ 7,00,000 $6,100 ‒ 8,540 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Mumbai
149 62 A A ALMELKAR (1920‒1982) Drummers Signed and dated 'A A ALMELKAR 60' (lower right) 1960 Gouache on card pasted on mount board 16 x 15.25 in (40.5 x 39 cm) Rs 2,50,000 ‒ 3,50,000 $3,050 ‒ 4,270 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Germany Private Collection, New Delhi EXHIBITED South Asian Modern Art 2023, London: Grosvenor Gallery, 9 ‒ 30 June 2023 PUBLISHED South Asian Modern Art 2023, London: Grosvenor Gallery, 2023, p.35 (illustrated) 63 A A ALMELKAR (1920‒1982) Sharbat! Sharbat! Signed 'A A ALMELKAR' (lower right) Circa 1950s Gouache on cardboard pasted on mount board 17 x 14.25 in (43 x 36 cm) Rs 3,00,000 ‒ 4,00,000 $3,660 ‒ 4,880 PROVENANCE Private Collection, New Delhi EXHIBITED A. A. Almelkar: Inspiration and Impact, Bengaluru: National Gallery of Modern Art, 27 January ‒ 10 March 2017 PUBLISHED The Times of India Annual, 1956 (illustrated) A. A. Almelkar: Inspiration and Impact, Bengaluru: National Gallery of Modern Art, 2017 (illustrated)
150 PROPERTY FROM THE JANE AND KITO DE BOER COLLECTION 64 BADRINATH ARYA (b.1936) Sanvri Signed ‘BADRI’ and dated indistinctly (lower left) Circa 1960s Watercolour and wash on paper 51.75 x 29.5 in (131.5 x 75 cm) $5,000 ‒ 7,000 Rs 4,10,000 ‒ 5,74,000 PROVENANCE Heart, New Delhi, 27 November 1999, lot 147 PUBLISHED Partha Mitter, “The Bengal School: The Rise of Artistic Nationalism in India,” Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson eds., Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 59 (illustrated)