Important Notice

Jogen Chowdhury’s art is recognisable by his distinctive depictions of human figures that are largely inspired by traditional folklore and the Indian family. His freely rendered and often distorted figures recall people and interactions from daily life and stand out due to the manner in which he “weaves the saris or odhini of the women or the dhoti of the men into spectacular contemporary forms that tell the magic of the tale.” (Uma Nair,... Jogen Chowdhury’s art is recognisable by his distinctive depictions of human figures that are largely inspired by traditional folklore and the Indian family. His freely rendered and often distorted figures recall people and interactions from daily life and stand out due to the manner in which he “weaves the saris or odhini of the women or the dhoti of the men into spectacular contemporary forms that tell the magic of the tale.” (Uma Nair, Jogen Chowdhury: Abahoman – Floating Life, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2007, pp. 7-8) At the same time, he “coats his images in garb and satire, fleshing out their rotundities with an eye for detailing and traditional delineating techniques” that give his works “a profound sense of solidity and monumentality that seems to belong to another age.” (Nair, p. 8)

His art gains texture through his trademark style of minute cross-hatching, a technique that he began to use in the 1960s, which goes with his preference for using ink and pastel to render the unbroken, meandering lines that feature in many of his works. The cross-hatching technique, usually using black ink, helped Chowdhury “build up a surface quality that wouldn’t be possible with watercolour and brush.” (Artist quoted in Rakhi Sarkar, Jogen Chowdhury and Rita Dutta, Jogen Chowdhury: His Life and Times, Kolkata: CIMA Gallery Pvt. Ltd., 2006, p. 44)

Though the Bengali influence in Chowdhury’s work is undeniable, his treatment of his subjects and the overall composition has a universal appeal that makes it easy for the viewer to connect with his art. At the same time, his understanding of the function of the line and the empty spaces between or surrounding his characters add a profoundness to the subjects and themes portrayed in his art, as noted in the present lot.

Chowdhury’s drawings of women are not only studies in portraiture, but also the artist’s unique interpretation of the subjects and scenes he chooses to portray. The seated woman in the present lot, with her raised arms and averted eyes, is reminiscent of a pose seen in Indian miniature paintings at times. She is oblivious to the viewer, deeply caught in her own thoughts. The illuminated subject in an otherwise darkened room lends the work a dramatic quality that is akin to a theatrical performance. The otherwise ordinary figure of the woman is thus magnified and endowed with a mythical lyricism thanks to Chowdhury’s unique development of form and details of posture, thereby transporting the work from the mundane to the theatrical.

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