Important Notice

"People for me are an increasingly sophisticated and alluring proposition when I look for a subject." - JOGEN CHOWDHURY

Jogen Chowdhury's art eschews Western trends in favour of a uniquely Indian approach inspired by traditional folklore and Indian family values. Though the Bengal influence in his work is undeniable, his attention to figuration and his skilful composition ensure a universal appeal. Chowdhury's freely rendered... "People for me are an increasingly sophisticated and alluring proposition when I look for a subject." - JOGEN CHOWDHURY

Jogen Chowdhury's art eschews Western trends in favour of a uniquely Indian approach inspired by traditional folklore and Indian family values. Though the Bengal influence in his work is undeniable, his attention to figuration and his skilful composition ensure a universal appeal. Chowdhury's freely rendered figures are influenced by his observations of people and their quotidian lives. Often distorted, these figures are articulated in a subtle crosshatching technique that Chowdhury adopted in the 1960s.

Commenting on his study of figuration Chowdury says, "It seems to me that the depth of perception that comes in figuration, the way figures can illuminate life may not be possible through other means. I want to portray our human environment, the people of our country, their nature, their way of sitting because they are different from others. You'll notice that there's a peculiar Indianness in their gestures and that attracts me. And it is this--the particular characteristics we see--that I wish to distil in my art. I develop these portrayals through distortion... I try to import in my figures an extra quality that's beyond academic naturalism, a certain abstract quality that makes them suprareal." (Artist quoted in Rakhi Sarkar, Jogen Chowdhury and Rita Dutta, Jogen Chowdhury: His Life and Times, Kolkata: Cima Gallery Pvt. Ltd., 2006, p. 37)

Chowdhury's depictions of women are not so much a study in portraiture, as they are the artist's interpretation of his subjects. In the present lot, the woman appears oblivious to the viewer, absorbed in her own thoughts, typical of Chowdhury's later works which he described as "more personalised and subtle." Here, the elongated limbs rendered in his characteristic crosshatching technique are typical of his style. The magnified size and posture of the woman illuminated in an otherwise darkened room, lends the painting a dramatic, almost theatrical quality.

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