Important Notice

"When thinking of an artist’s vocabulary we most often look for individualistic gestures; a type of brush stroke or a particular technique of paint application. In Gopikrishna’s paintings we are invited into a world view which encompasses not only flourishes of fabulous technical skill but, more importantly, establishes its own unique construction of time and space. It is a world where personalities float, fight and sleep according to universal... "When thinking of an artist’s vocabulary we most often look for individualistic gestures; a type of brush stroke or a particular technique of paint application. In Gopikrishna’s paintings we are invited into a world view which encompasses not only flourishes of fabulous technical skill but, more importantly, establishes its own unique construction of time and space. It is a world where personalities float, fight and sleep according to universal laws entirely of the artist’s making: but these are laws that are so tantalizingly close to our own world that we constantly hover between a knowing and unknowing of the motivations that activate his subjects" (Mortimer Chatterjee, Dream Conservatory, Art Musings exhibition catalogue, 2007, unpaginated).

The present lot, like many of Gopikrishna’s canvases, portrays bizarrely outfitted humans in equally peculiar situations. Here, two whiskered men, dressed in nothing but pointy helmets and belts to hang their daggers from, seem ready to fight to the end over the last stalk of sugarcane available in an endless, but barren field. Highlighting the precarious ecological situation of our planet, with its limited supply of natural resources, the artist reminds viewers about the bitter fights that have already broken out over limited food and land.

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