Important Notice

"Material is not only a means, but a whole process; through the 'bones' and surfaces of a material, the concepts, the ideas, the dreams, the emotions, find their expression." - SANKHO CHAUDHURI

This weighty bronze sculpture by Sankho Chaudhuri is a large, non-public work. Chaudhuri by all reckoning, was an artist ahead of his time. He was educated at Santiniketan where he was a student of Ramkinker Baij. "The atmosphere in... "Material is not only a means, but a whole process; through the 'bones' and surfaces of a material, the concepts, the ideas, the dreams, the emotions, find their expression." - SANKHO CHAUDHURI

This weighty bronze sculpture by Sankho Chaudhuri is a large, non-public work. Chaudhuri by all reckoning, was an artist ahead of his time. He was educated at Santiniketan where he was a student of Ramkinker Baij. "The atmosphere in those days (1935-45) was eminently suitable for... a certain freedom of opportunity of thought... Sankho's own work... was not preoccupied with romantic subject matter, nor did he feel the necessity to conform to 'realism'." (Jaya Appasamy, "An Introduction to Modern Indian Sculpture," New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, p. 18) Chaudhuri visited Europe in 1949, and over his remarkable career, did both abstract sculptures and portraits. His vision had more than a little in common with the monumental sculptures of British artist Henry Moore than the realism of academia.

In the present lot, Chaudhuri creates a stark, unembellished form that is still fluid and organic. "His forms whether casted in metal or worked in sheet-metal, enveloping space, express the essential spirit of things. They are volume creations-from material volume to virtual volume-and circumscribed mass imbued with a remarkable sense of rhythm." (Pran Nath Mago, "Some Consequential Contemporary Artists of India," Contemporary Art in India: A Perspective, New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 2001, p. 182) The present lot embodies the universality of art which Chaudhuri spoke of in a conversation in 1955: "When I see a work of art, it never occurs to me, that I might not admire this work because it is Western or Eastern... Your work speaks for you." (Prayag Shukla, "A Dialogue with Sankho Chaudhuri: The Art of Sculpting Has to be Fulfilled," 1955, Critical Collective)

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