Important Notice

“Jogen Chowdhury…is an artist with a singular sensibility. His innate sense of rhythm, his subtle ability to uncover the sensuality at the heart of events, to draw them together and to slip his longings and fears into a variety of things, truly distinguishes his work of the last 40 years. Behind his ability to gather everything in a cadenced embrace lies his genius to reach out and internalize the ‘other’.” (R Siva Kumar, Jogen Chowdhury –... “Jogen Chowdhury…is an artist with a singular sensibility. His innate sense of rhythm, his subtle ability to uncover the sensuality at the heart of events, to draw them together and to slip his longings and fears into a variety of things, truly distinguishes his work of the last 40 years. Behind his ability to gather everything in a cadenced embrace lies his genius to reach out and internalize the ‘other’.” (R Siva Kumar, Jogen Chowdhury – Enigmatic Visions, Glenbarra Art Museum, 2005, p. 9)

In this ink and pastel work from 1999, we see the passive sensuality and longings that Siva Kumar describes in Chowdhury’s rendering of the ‘other’ – here, a lone nude in contemplative repose with the moon as her only companion. As is the artist’s convention, the amoebic human figure and its surroundings are built up through strong lines and tiny cross-hatches, and later coloured lightly with soft, dry pastels. The bedspread is highly decorative, like most of the fabrics the artist portrays, and seems like it would unfurl endlessly into the night if not for the phallic bolster pillow, symbolic perhaps of the controls over the woman’s life and the futility of her dreams. The background is pitch-black, another characteristic of Chowdhury’s work, heightening the ‘otherness’ of the central figure even more.

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