Important Notice

"I have picked up the imagery that surrounds me, the one I am born into, and it comes naturally." - BADRI NARAYAN

Known for his introspective, narrative style, the self-taught Badri Narayan was an artist as well as art teacher whose career spanned 45 years. His paintings are rich with symbolism, drawing from Indian mythology and miniatures, and presenting the viewer with a puzzle to be solved. The titles of his works, such as... "I have picked up the imagery that surrounds me, the one I am born into, and it comes naturally." - BADRI NARAYAN

Known for his introspective, narrative style, the self-taught Badri Narayan was an artist as well as art teacher whose career spanned 45 years. His paintings are rich with symbolism, drawing from Indian mythology and miniatures, and presenting the viewer with a puzzle to be solved. The titles of his works, such as the present lot, are often the starting points to interpret his paintings and unravel their complexities. Narayan preferred to work in a smaller format, which suited his favoured medium - watercolours - for many years. However, he was versatile and experimentative, and also worked with etchings, woodcuts and ceramics, in addition to illustrating children's books.

Self-reflection and an autobiographical perspective are a constant theme in Narayan's work. He once wrote that, "Human creativity has innumerable forms and aspects, varied faces, many phases, an eternal river with a host of tributaries. The artist's impulse to dream and to set down his visions is his natural prerogative: these supply responsive viewers with a feeling of delight. Or, rather, as the painter Henri Matisse observed, the eminently harmonic aspect of a painting should provide modern man with classical enjoyment." (Artist quoted in "Sources of Artistic Inspiration and Points of Departure and Convergence," Badri Narayan: Water Colours, Mumbai: Pundole Art Gallery, 2002)

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