Important Notice

An entirely self-taught artist, Badri Narayan has been exhibiting his work since 1949. Besides his well-known narrative watercolour paintings, the artist's extensive oeuvre includes works executed in several media and genres, including ceramics, pastels, woodcuts and etchings. The present lot, an early monochromatic still life, illuminates the artist's deep understanding of colour and construction, as well as his masterful handling of the pastel... An entirely self-taught artist, Badri Narayan has been exhibiting his work since 1949. Besides his well-known narrative watercolour paintings, the artist's extensive oeuvre includes works executed in several media and genres, including ceramics, pastels, woodcuts and etchings. The present lot, an early monochromatic still life, illuminates the artist's deep understanding of colour and construction, as well as his masterful handling of the pastel medium.

Also a philosopher, writer, teacher and storyteller, Narayan believes that an artist's work is essential to society. He writes, "Why does the work of the artist need our attention? Because it has a certain quality of perception, and of human will and human skill that must be expressed for the sake of its own fulfillment. Human creativity has innumerable forms and aspects, varied faces, many phases, an eternal river with a host of tributaries. The artist's impulse to dream and to set down his visions is his natural prerogative: these supply responsive viewers with a feeling of delight. Or, rather, as the painter Henri Matisse observed, the eminently harmonic aspect of a painting should provide modern man with classical enjoyment" ("Sources of Artistic Inspiration and Points of Departure and Convergence", Badri Narayan: Water-Colours, Pundole Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2002, not paginated).

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