Important Notice

One of Ravinder Reddy’s earliest female heads, Urdhvanana illustrates the initial development of the artist’s present handling of volume, form and material. Speaking of the origins of his fascination with structure, sexuality and the female form, Reddy says, "During my studies at art school, I developed feeling for organic forms. My exposure to various cultures – Asian, Egyptian, Mayan, and early Greek – made a strong impression on me in terms... One of Ravinder Reddy’s earliest female heads, Urdhvanana illustrates the initial development of the artist’s present handling of volume, form and material. Speaking of the origins of his fascination with structure, sexuality and the female form, Reddy says, "During my studies at art school, I developed feeling for organic forms. My exposure to various cultures – Asian, Egyptian, Mayan, and early Greek – made a strong impression on me in terms of monumentality, strong form, frontality, and overpowering presence. Open sexual sensuality in folk art forms also made a deep impression on me. I incorporate these things in my work. I draw inspiration from my surroundings. My life force is women – they are the source of growth and life. In my work, I wish primarily to re-experience images perceived in everyday life. Adding and subtracting lumps of clay and building up volume enables me, through close physical contact, to grasp the image in sculptural form. Later, I define this image more precisely in paint" (Ravinder Reddy, The Andy Warhol Museum exhibition catalogue, 2001, unpaginated).

Even though it is executed in terracotta gilded with copper and rests on its cheeks instead of its neck, Urdhvanana exhibits the same frontality, staring eyes and voluptuous form of the polyester resin fiberglass heads covered with thick car paint and gold gilt that Reddy creates today. Deeply influenced by ancient Indian sculpture, folk art as well as the colourful and kitschy mélanges of its modern day bazaars, these heads belong to unabashed, contemporary goddesses. Describing them, the cultural critic Ajay Sinha remarks about their modern urban inflections, "…the narrowed eyes and pinched smile are more naughty than self-absorbed, making these urban yakshis entirely self-conscious of a (male) viewer at the bus stop or in a crowded shopping plaza. Ever so slightly oversized, they allow an immediate indulgent contact of their bodies. The thick coat of brightly coloured paint seals the underskin like cheap cosmetics, pasty and sticky with sweat" ("Contemporary Indian Art: A Question of Method", Art Journal, Fall 1999, p. 37).

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