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Lot 60

 

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“A painting talks to you. Sometimes you are confused and it silently watches your anxiety. You love someone dear to you without letting that person be aware of your love. You write poetry, sing, paint, do anything as an expression of your love without any expectations. You simply love. Painting is like that love – unconditional, selfless” (the artist quoted in Prabhakar Kolte, “The Frozen Reflection”, From Art to Art: Essays and Critique by... “A painting talks to you. Sometimes you are confused and it silently watches your anxiety. You love someone dear to you without letting that person be aware of your love. You write poetry, sing, paint, do anything as an expression of your love without any expectations. You simply love. Painting is like that love – unconditional, selfless” (the artist quoted in Prabhakar Kolte, “The Frozen Reflection”, From Art to Art: Essays and Critique by Prabhakar Kolte, Bodhana Arts Foundation, Mumbai, 2008, p. 92).

“This is the philosophy of Barwe that defined his art, work that was created from a tiny den at Kurla [in Mumbai] that bathed itself with the fresh rays of the sun every morning. One might try becoming a shaft of that light that enters the room, making the bars of the little window seem transparent. The four walls turn the world inward, and the one with the window remains not a mere wall but becomes a gateway to an unnamed infinity. The atmosphere inside his studio transports one into a world of pictorial elements that exceed the entire studio and its components – the doors, the glass, the pegs that get so artistically composed in his creations” (Ibid.).

The present lot, titled The Easel, reflects the importance that the studio environment and the process of creation had on Barwe’s body of work, and particularly on his minimalist aesthetic of the 1990s. Here, an easel shares the frame with a lone brushstroke, two empty tins, and what is perhaps a razor blade or pencil sharpener. Paring the studio scene down to its most fundamental elements, Barwe explores the notion of existence beyond conventional notions of space and time, where nothing matters except the canvas that stands on the easel before him. Elucidating this artistic philosophy, Barwe states, “I am not usually given to work hard. But I paint when I feel happy to be painting and then I have no contact whatsoever with the world outside. At that time I am just a painter and nothing else” (Ibid.).

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