Astaguru’s stellar sale of iconic masters

From the monochromatic magic of KG Subramanyan’s War of the Relics,  to the lone Santhal woman of Jamini Roy to Krishen Khanna’s bandwallahs, a mesmerizing portrait by Amrita Sher-Gil and a magical Hanuman by Thota Vaikuntam Astaguru’s sale of Iconic Indian masters this November is a treat for tired eyes. Lovers of art in Delhi had a whirlwind tour of Astaguru’s offerings at Travancore House last weekend.

KG Subramanyan’s  War of the relics

A small set of works belonging to KG Subramanyan’s monumental  War of the Relics is unforgettable. No one can forget his panels at the India Art Fair in 2013, when  War of the Relics was shown by Sakshi Gallery of Mumbai. The black and white testimony of the dialectics of war, of the victorious and the defeated-the many dichotomies of dialogues in great wars in this post modern scenario was nothing short of a masterpiece in Indian Contemporary Art.

It has a running seriality in its illustrative cadences, from the scene of rhapsodic horsemen from the Crusades, to the battle tanks belonging to 2002’s Afghanistan—Subramanyan’s figures, painted in black acrylic and oil on a white background, are a dramatic thesis on the observations of modern day history and the politics of power born in the corridors of terror.

Jamini Roy’s Santhal 

Known as India’s first modernist, modernism for Jamini Roy lay hidden in the lives of the common people, the marginalized Santhals. Their bronzed bodies became the allure for his gopinis and pujarins and mother and child studies. Jamini Roy’s creative zest was born out of a tissue of paradoxes. Introduced to Western studies and landscape vignettes he wanted to find his own insignia.This image at Astaguru is a silent masterpiece that presents its own aura  in modernist mode.Contours and compositional clarity were Roy’s elixir in his love for capturing feminine identities.Poise and pensive poignancy create an aura of quietude and meditative stillness.

Toast to Krishen Khanna 

Astaguru’s toast to Krishen Khanna presents a silent synergy of works that celebrate the Bandwallahs and a quintessential car with two inmates.Bordering on the narrative, Khanna’s Bandwallahs in blue as well as buttercup yellow  captures moments in everyday symbolism but the artist’s technique is an  abstract narrative.

Khanna transfers his observations onto the canvas with spontaneity and exuberance, keeping the representational elements of his subject matter intact with an emotive essence. The artist’s use of colour and his expressionist brushwork make the scene one of deep devotion.

Krishen Khanna captures a moment at the Dhaba

A deeply humanist painter, Khanna frequently focused on the everyday realities, from  rural migrants sleeping on the bed of a truck to labourers catching a short break at roadside tea stalls, he magnified and celebrated unknown people of Nizamuddin  where he lived and worked, on his canvases. Social realism has been a subtle signature in his Dhaba series.This is a flashback in time.

Amrita Sher-Gil portrait

Amrita Sher-Gil’s portrait of a lady is a winsome wonder in the lexicon of language in drawing. Supple and fluid and attractive in its persona of profile this is a work that brings back the beauty of yesteryear and her brilliance as an artist of depth and magnitude.The kohl filled eyes, the circular earing and the accentuated lips all add to the brilliance of the capturing of the feminine mystique.

Vaikuntam’s Hanuman 

Thota Vaikuntam’s Hanuman is a masterpiece in mythology. This work reminds us that the Devas attributed Hanuman’s qualities to four virtues: ‘ firmness, vision, wisdom and dexterity.’He also recalls  three mighty leaps of Hanuman, each different in his life, and each distinct in the context, has a lesson in search of truth and true Dharma.

We gaze at this work and reflect that  children adore Hanuman. adults worship him, and warriors evoke him. To women, he is the supreme protector. Historian Aravindan Neelakandan says he also personifies matchless might and endless wisdom, unbelievable strength and unsurpassed devotion.

This work is about Hanuman leaping those  three leaps. His leap across the space to catch the sun; his leap across the ocean in search of  Sita, and across the land mass of India to Himalayas, to serve Rama and Lakshmana.Treatment of the subject is Vaikuntam’s greatest forte.The colours and the contours all create its own synergy in terms of cubist connotations in symbolism.

Images: Astaguru

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