Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Female artists from India in spotlight - II

This is the second part of our series in which we track the female artists in spotlight at a recent international auction and those who need to be watched closely from the market point of view:

Nasreen Mohamedi's diary entries during the time these complex works were done let us a very deep insight into the overall thought processes, which motivated her to execute them. Whilst serving as a precursor to a series of gripping geometric paperworks from the mid-1970s onwards, those of the decade ago were an equally critical part of her vast oeuvre.

Zarina’s multi-faceted practice embraces and amalgamates sculpture, architecture, woodcuts etc; tactile in the diverse materials used, packed with meaning yet minimal in its expression. Her preferred media are paper that she manipulates with dexterity (including papier mâché forms), and wood that she carves (the wooden printing blocks).

Having trained at the prestigious Munich Art Academy in the '60s, under Expressionists Tony Staedler and Heinrich Kirchner, Meera Mukherjee came back to India, keen to seek her artistic idiom and spontaneous creative expression closer home. She evolved an iconography that was indeed unique. Opposing pulls of mass and movement, vulnerability and strength infuse an intense character into her fascinating figures enhanced by the textural play created by the usage of decorative elements on the surface. Many of her sculptures depicted womenfolk working on and off the field - repairing fishing nets, stitching and toiling away.

Meanwhile, a private collection of Indian court paintings, entitled The Garden of Epics, made £494,625 ($770,131). It was followed by the Arts of India sale which totaled £903,125 ($1,406,165) that included a large selection of fine classical paintings, from 17th century Mughal portraits to Rajput, Pahari and Company school paintings. Fine decorative and courtly objects illustrated the breadth and wealth of Indian art, spanning centuries of the sub-continent’s history. ‘The Garden of Epics –Indian Court Paintings’, a curated selection of forty-five paintings from a private collection, featured rare and important examples of Pahari paintings, together with Rajput and Mughal works.

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