Important Notice

Surendran Nair’s epic works from the series Cuckoonebulopolis often feature a lone male protagonist, contemplatively silent, upon and around whom the action unfolds. The artist’s “…series of male figures has its roots in sacred iconography. Iconic sculptural images of Visnu and of the Buddha, eternally graceful and endowed with the attributes of earthly beauty provide the physical prototypes for this body of work. At the thematic level, …[it is]... Surendran Nair’s epic works from the series Cuckoonebulopolis often feature a lone male protagonist, contemplatively silent, upon and around whom the action unfolds. The artist’s “…series of male figures has its roots in sacred iconography. Iconic sculptural images of Visnu and of the Buddha, eternally graceful and endowed with the attributes of earthly beauty provide the physical prototypes for this body of work. At the thematic level, …[it is] a continuation of the artists’ series Cuckoonebulopolis started in 1999… Cuckoonebulopolis, the city of birds among the clouds, is for Nair, an allegory for the vain quest for utopia; for peace prosperity and freedom in a beleaguered democracy” (Chaitanya Sambrani, “Under the Skin of Simulation: Three Contemporary Painters”, The Fine Art Resource exhibition catalogue, 2003, unpaginated).

“Nair takes delight in his titles, using them as subsidiary elements that complicate and enrich our reading of the painting itself. In several of his recent works, lengthy titles, and subtitles appear painted onto the canvas, epistles inviting the viewer to a game of abundant signifiers, daring them to follow the artist’s adventures through a hyper-real terrain of literatures and histories” (Ibid.). In the title of the present lot, Lumbini refers to the birth place of Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal, regarded today one of the four main Buddhist holy sites. Accordingly, its statuesque nude male subject, perhaps a pilgrim, seems to be making an offering of the water that flows over him, possibly in expectation of some sort of epiphany as the title suggests. What the artist might be alluding to in this allegorical piece, is perhaps the futility of seeking full and free suffrage in today’s corrupt democracies, as this condition is one that only exists in utopias like Cuckoonebulopolis.

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