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lot 31

lot 31

K.G. Subramanyan

The Visitor

acrylic on canvas
54 x 54 in (137.2 x 137.2 cm)
painted in 1994

Winning Bid: $ 50,000

Estimate: US$ 50,000 - 70,000

Lot Closed

Lot Details

Initialled in Malayalam (lower left)
Inscribed and dated (on the reverse)

PROVENANCE
Saffronart / Lot 30 / Spring Online Auction / March 2009

EXHIBITED AND PUBLISHED
Jiva - Life: Contemporary Indian Painting, Bodhi Art (Singapore, 2004)

EXHIBITED AND PUBLISHED:
K.G. Subramanyan: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 2003, p. 176 (illustrated)

The philosophical and mystic traditions of India are replete with stories and symbols. The ease and clarity with which these convey the deeper narratives and connotations intended from them, appeal powerfully to the artistic eye. The number 'three' is very significant in the philosophical symbolism of the Shaiva and Advaita traditions. Shiva is considered to be the singular principle of all existence, the Brahman. He manifests Himself as the one consciousness that illumines the three states of experience: the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states. He is also considered the pervader of all three worlds — heaven, earth and hell — and the ground on which the past, present and future are conjoin to form the progression of time.

“In this painting Subramanyan uses the colours of the earth, images of animal skins and the trees to create a dense visual field. The Visitor seems to refer to the iconography of Shiva who appears here with the three faces of a trimukha, a snake, suspended from his right shoulder. The fact that the face is rendered like a mask adds to the piquant quality of the painting. Shiva's conventional seat, the hide of the spotted deer appears in different parts of the painting. This work is typical of Subramanyan’s involvement with myth, his ability to rework it for his own purposes. It also demonstrates what he calls the bahurupee or disguise in play ‘mixing the normal with the hieratic’, the human with the mythic, the world of play and the imagination” (Gayatri Sinha, Jiva – Life: Contemporary Indian Art, Bodhi Art Exhibition Catalogue, Singapore, 2004, p.46).

K.G. Subramanyan

(1924 - 2016)
Born in Kerala in 1924, Subramanyan received his art education at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, and the Slade School of Art, London. He continued painting and teaching over the next few decades, and was appointed a fellow of the National Lalit Kala Akademi in 1985, and a Christensen Fellow at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, in 1987-88. Subramanyan also served as Dean at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Baroda, and in 1989 was appointed Professor Emeritus at Santiniketan. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, and participated in several major Biennales and Triennales. In 1966 Subramanyan was awarded the John D. Rockfeller III Fund Fellowship. In recognition of his varied contributions to the development of Indian art he was awarded the Shiromani Kala Puraskar by the Government of India in 1994. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held in 2003 at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and Mumbai. Subramanyan was awarded the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2006 and 2012 respectively. At the age of 92, he passed away in Vadodara in June 2016.