Important Notice

Rameshwar Broota has, over the course of his career, continuously experimented with the norms of figurative painting. He has repeatedly pushed the boundaries of representation and abstraction in his ongoing quest to represent the truth on the canvas. This is noted in his early works that were portraits of the urban poor – a reaction to the suffering and inequality that he witnessed in New Delhi in the 1970s. The mid-1990s saw Broota shifting his... Rameshwar Broota has, over the course of his career, continuously experimented with the norms of figurative painting. He has repeatedly pushed the boundaries of representation and abstraction in his ongoing quest to represent the truth on the canvas. This is noted in his early works that were portraits of the urban poor – a reaction to the suffering and inequality that he witnessed in New Delhi in the 1970s. The mid-1990s saw Broota shifting his focus to include the products of human civilisation, juxtaposing the male body with elements of architecture and language.

At the core of Broota’s art is an overarching focus on man – whose body and its relationship with its surroundings become the site for conflict and resolution. “Through repeated acts of resistance, the male body, with its skeletal frame or stolid musculature, plays out its postures of acceptance or confrontation.” (Gayatri Sinha, “Edge of the Precipice: The Art of Rameshwar Broota,” Rameshwar Broota, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2001, p. 24) His works are existential explorations; extraneous detail is exercised, focussing the viewer’s eyes on the deeply modelled man- machine. “The realization that every part of the human body is expressive and can speak has made Broota move from the monumental to the minimal, from panorama to fragment... each small part of the body demands the same kind of attention and treatment.” (Roobina Karoda, Counterparts: Recent Paintings by Rameshwar Broota, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2009, p. 6)

Broota’s paintings bear the physical scars of his innovative and labour-intensive creative process, which involved developing “a method in which he applied many thin coats of paint beginning with silver and including raw sienna, burnt umber, shades of bluish black as well as pure black, and incorporating linseed oil to preserve the suppleness of the surface for the scraping phase.” (Susan Bean, “Midnight’s Children: The Second Generation,” Midnight to the Boom: Painting in India after Independence, New York: Peabody Essex Museum, 2013, p. 138) Once the layers are ready, the artist uses a razor to scrape and work the surface with varying amounts of pressure to create fine textures and exquisitely etched details. Through this process, Broota blurs the definitions of painting and becomes part sculptor, part archaeologist, exhuming his forms from the medium itself. “The chromatic nuances resulting from the scratching, in spite of their austerity, can be mesmerizing. Broota’s magical handling of myriad textures creates a brilliant impact... The minute detail is a fascinating visual experience.” (Ella Datta, Rameshwar Broota, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2004-2005, online)

The Stare of Destiny, a diptych, belongs to the Confrontation series of paintings – one that Broota explored in the early 2000s. It represents his ongoing preoccupation with the contemporary human situation by juxtaposing man with industrial objects and architectural fragments, articulating the friction of the vulnerable human flesh.

Large canvases such as the present lot embody the zenith of Broota’s process of paring his work of all that he deemed superfluous, including narrative and colour. In place of these elements, the artist concentrates on conveying the exact textures of specific anatomical details, objects, and architectural elements, giving his paintings an almost sculptural presence. “Broota migrates gradually into a timeless realm, where form and content remain indissoluble despite being abstracted into signs and symbols. The body, always male, for Broota to ruminate, is now universal substance. The body unframed from any contour vanishes within the debris of its own remains, leaving behind a subtle and tactile surface. The artist takes us back into time, and to the beginning of time.” (Roobina Karode, Visions of Interiority: Interrogating the Male Body, Rameshwar Broota: A Retrospective (1963-2013), New Delhi: KNMA, 2014, pp. 124-125)

Ultimately, Broota is a singular artist, one who does not conform to trends or traditions. The present lot epitomises his pursuit of truth on the canvas. Broota’s style of manipulating scale and focus on his canvases ensures that it is the ordinary that is monumentalised while encouraging the observer to question the familiarity of his images. Through these half-images, Broota explores the shadowy anonymity that society imposes on the contemporary individual, and the insidious violence of this phenomenon.

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