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lot 30

lot 30

Rameshwar Broota

Man (14th)

oil on canvas
49.75 x 69.5 in. (126.3 x 176.5 cm.)
painted in 1983

Winning Bid: $ 140,000

Estimate: US$ 120,000 - 180,000

Lot Closed

Lot Details

Signed, titled, dated and inscribed 'R.Broota / MAN (14th) / '83 / R.BROOTA / Triveni Kala Sangam / 205, Tansen Marg / New Delhi - 110001 / INDIA' (on the reverse)

PROVENANCE
Christie's / Lot 45 / South Asian Modern & Contemporary Art / London / June / 2015
Acquired from the above by the present owner

'Broota is one of the most demanding artists living in India today. He is one of the very few who forces the viewer to dig deep in order to answer the question why. Why does a successful portrait artist start to paint politically powerful satirical images? Why does he abandon the relative ease of the paintbrush for the excruciatingly painstaking discipline of the razor blade? Why does he choose to confront the viewer with powerful sinewy male nudes? Why does he juxtapose the organic with harsh architectural forms? Why does he abandon colour to focus on a monochromatic palette? Why does he choose to spend 6-18 months on massive canvases the size of murals that contain no discernible image? Why does he devote so much of his time in the later stages of his career to photography? Why, in short, does he so often change direction and choose the most difficult path? Why does this mild-mannered, devoted family man, who lives a simple quiet life, behave like a revolutionary and break every single artistic convention?' (Kito De Boer, Rameshwar Broota: Interrogating the Male Body, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, 2015)

Rameshwar Broota

(b. 1941)
Born in 1941, Broota graduated from New Delhi College of Art and Later became a faculty member there. Since 1967, he has been heading Triveni Kala Sangam in New Delhi. Broota’s recent solo shows include those held at 1 x 1 Art Gallery, Dubai, in 2011; Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2011 and 2009; Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2008; Vadehra Art Gallery at Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi, in 2007; the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai and Galerie 88, Kolkata, in 2004-05. Some of the group shows that Broota’s works have been a part of include ‘Ideas of the Sublime’ presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 2013; ‘Progressive to Altemodern’ at Grosvenor Vadehra, London, in 2009; ‘Still Moving Image’ at the Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, in 2008; ‘Contemporary Art of India’, at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 1999; and those at the Taka Oka Municipal Museum of Art and Merguro Museum of Art, Japan, in 1988. In 1982, Broota’s works were exhibited at the Museum of Art and Merguro Museum of Art, Japan, in 1988. In 1982, Broota’s works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, the Hirschorn Museum in Washington DC, and the Damstadt Museum in Germany. He has been honoured with the National Award by the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1980, 1981 and 1984. The Artist lives and works in New Delhi.