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Lot 30

 

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Anjolie Ela Menon, one of India's foremost modernists, has had a longstanding association with the female form. Her formidable body of work contains multiple examples of this in the form of portraits, nudes and explorations of feminine icons within mythology.

Menon's constantly evolving oeuvre defies compartmentalisation or categorisation. While her earlier works "were dominated by flat areas of thick bright colour, with sharp... Anjolie Ela Menon, one of India's foremost modernists, has had a longstanding association with the female form. Her formidable body of work contains multiple examples of this in the form of portraits, nudes and explorations of feminine icons within mythology.

Menon's constantly evolving oeuvre defies compartmentalisation or categorisation. While her earlier works "were dominated by flat areas of thick bright colour, with sharp outlines that were painted with the vigour and brashness of extreme youth," Menon noted that her paintings underwent tremendous change as she grew older and gained more experience. (Quoted in saffronart.com, online)

Menon's women are often rendered in vibrant colours, while exuding a latent sensuality and melancholy that evokes a sense of yearning from the viewer. The present lot is no exception to this, where the eye is immediately drawn to the central female figure with her pensive stance and strong lines, set against a muted background that only serves to enhance the contrasting bright and vivid colours used on her person by the artist.

Speaking about the women in her paintings, Menon once said, "My world is far more immediate - many of the women I paint are my sisters and aunts, close friends, people who have worked with us, brought us up. And, of course, there are women whom I respect and have great sympathy for... Of course, there are many who have identified with the women I paint, especially those who are trapped or sitting alone on a chair, or those innocent ones with a newlyawakened sensuality, and those who are waiting." (I Murti, Anjolie Ela Menon: Paintings in Private Collections, New Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 1995, p. 15)

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