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lot 59

lot 59

Jitish Kallat

Tragedienne (Taste, Lick, Swallow and Speak)

mixed media on canvas
triptych 89.75 x 178.75 in. (228 x 454.5 cm.)
each panel 89.75 x 59.5 in. (228 x 151 cm.)
painted in 2002

Winning Bid: $ 54,000

Estimate: US$ 30,000 - 50,000

Lot Closed

Lot Details

Signed, titled and dated '(c) 2002 JITISH KALLAT - TRAGEDIENNE (TASTE, LICK, SWALLOW AND SPEAK ) - C tor (3) (first panel, left centre edge & third panel, upper right)
initialed and dated '(c) 2002 JK' (bottom right)

PROVENANCE
The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
Private collection, Dubai

EXHIBITED
"subTerrain: artworks in the cityfold", The House of World Cultures, Berlin, 19 September 2003

LOT ESSAY
Jitish Kallat employs a bold and vivid visual language that references artistic traditions both from the east and the west. His work regularly exploits images and materials chanced upon around Mumbai's sprawling metropolis, from advertisement billboards and newspapers to graffitis providing his works an inherent spontaneity, handcrafted aesthetics and rich metaphor. All of these combine to create works that participate intimately with the artist's visual language and comment upon the unique idiosyncrasies of his home.

Resolved to express and unmute the voice of the marginalized - the people in the periphery who remains outside of society's power structure, Kallat distilled and used the sentiments of the disenfranchise in an emotive way to visually represent them. "This de-muting had started to successfully provide an innovative use of textures and scale, incorporating the vast body of the subaltern's twisted realities."1

"In proposing a set of active and recurring codes, Kallat starts to propose a need to 'hear and see' as in 'Tragedienne (Taste, Lick, Swallow, and Speak)' (2002) which suggests a community that he embellishes with vehement textual references."2 Kallat employs a plain background referencing the color-coded terrorism threat scale introduced by the Homeland Security Advisory System in the USA in March 2002; in this case blue, signifying guarded conditions and general risk of terror attacks. Notable is the artist's reinvention of the painted surface to mimic the appearance of a television still or a computer monitor.

1 Shaheen Merali. (2010, June). Jittish Kallat. India Perspectives, Vol. 24, pg. 85
2 Ibid., 87.

Jitish Kallat

(b. 1974)
Born in 1974 in Mumbai, Jitish Kallat received his Bachelor’s degree in painting from the Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai in 1996. His solo shows include ‘Epilogue’, The San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, in 2013-14; The Hour of the Day of the Month of the Season;, Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, in 2013; ‘Chlorophyll Park’, Nature Morte, New Delhi, in 2012; ‘Stations of a Pause’, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, in 2011; ‘Public Notice 3’ at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, in 2010; ‘Likewise’ at Arndt and Partner, Berlin, in 2010; ‘The Astronomy of the Subway’ at Haunch of Venison, London, in 2010; ‘Aquasaurus’ at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, in 2008’ ‘Public Notice 2’ at Bodhi Art, Singapore, in 2008; ‘Skinside Outside’ at Arario Gallery, Seoul, in 2008; ‘Universal Recipient’ at Haunch of Venison, Zurich, in 2008; ‘Unclaimed Baggage’ at Albion, London, in 2007, and ‘Sweatopia’ at Bodhi Art and Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, in 2007. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including ‘Ideas of the Sublime’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 2013; ‘2 + 2 = 5’. The Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, ‘Mapmakers The Evolution of Contemporary Indian Art’, Aicon Gallery, New York, in 2012; ‘Pause A Collection,’ Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. ‘I Don’t Need Your Money Honey All I Need is Love’, from The Farook Collection at Traffic, Gallery II, Dubai, in 2011; ‘Monumental’ at Walsh Gallery, Chicago, in 2010-11; ‘Now Through a Glass Darkly’ at Arario Gallery, New York, in 2010; ‘Changing The World’ and ‘A Long Way From Home’ at Arndt & Partner, Berlin, in 2010; ‘The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today’ at the Saatchi Gallery, London, in 2010; ‘All That Is Solid Melts Into Air’ at Lakeeren, Mumbai, in 2009-10; ‘Indian Summer’ at Galerie Christian Hosp., Berlin, in 2009; ‘Architectonica’ at Seven Art Limited and Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi, in 2009; and ‘India Contemporary’ at the GEM Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hague, in 2009. The artist lives and works in Mumbai.