Important Notice

The enigmatic, introspective figure has fascinated Anjolie Ela Menon throughout her extensive career. Inspired as much by Tanjore paintings as she is by orthodox icons from Russia, her oil and gold leaf paintings on board reveal the artist’s aspiration to take the mythic and spiritual and bring a certain corporality and immediacy to it.

This pursuit of corporality is evident in the present lot, a large-format portrait of Christ that... The enigmatic, introspective figure has fascinated Anjolie Ela Menon throughout her extensive career. Inspired as much by Tanjore paintings as she is by orthodox icons from Russia, her oil and gold leaf paintings on board reveal the artist’s aspiration to take the mythic and spiritual and bring a certain corporality and immediacy to it.

This pursuit of corporality is evident in the present lot, a large-format portrait of Christ that borrows from ecclesiastic traditions, but is rendered unique through Menon’s artistic idiom. According to her biographer, Isana Murti, “In her search for source material, Anjolie often turned towards ecclesiastical art – particularly Christian art of the Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine periods. The influence of icons was further reinforced when she lived in Russian in the late 1960s. Menon continues to be inspired by the still, often severe iconic figuration and the rich palette of madders, brown and gold relieved by brilliant whites which was generic to much religious art. Menon sees the medieval Christ as a stark figure, swarthy, black-bearded, the son of a carpenter. This deliberately rejects the present day sentimental rendering of Christ as a pale, blond, blue eyed deity” (“Gods and Others”, Anjolie Ela Menon: Through the Patina, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2010, p. 346).

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site