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Lot 120

 

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“A photograph has picked up a fact of life, and that fact will live forever.”
- RAGHU RAI

Magnum photographer Raghu Rai’s oeuvre covers the breadth of life in contemporary India. He is known for delving deep into his subjects. He was fascinated by Mother Teresa, photographed in lot 129, on whom he has published multiple books. “Rai engages with his subject over a sustained period. Much of his work is contained in several... “A photograph has picked up a fact of life, and that fact will live forever.”
- RAGHU RAI

Magnum photographer Raghu Rai’s oeuvre covers the breadth of life in contemporary India. He is known for delving deep into his subjects. He was fascinated by Mother Teresa, photographed in lot 129, on whom he has published multiple books. “Rai engages with his subject over a sustained period. Much of his work is contained in several publications, ranging from pictorial to biographical work. His photographs have an iconic quality, a sense of compressing immense magnitude within the split second image. Rai also pursues through his oeuvre what is described as ‘not the epic but the lyrical truth’.” (Gayatri Sinha, “Middle Age Spread”, Critical Collective, online)

Along with people, he has also thoroughly documented daily life in the city of Calcutta as can be seen in lot 128. “Raghu Rai’s photographs of Calcutta combine a mouldering city with the incessant will to live, communicated through the deep tones and shadows that play in the light. In Rai’s pictures you can feel the press of the bodies on the hot streets, hear the belching call of the streamer on the Hooghly, feel the soft mist of a very early morning in the Calcutta maidan.” (Sinha, Critical Collective, online)

FROM THE COLLECTION OF JANE AND KITO DE BOER

Jane and Kito de Boer’s collection is a rare survey of Indian painting from the late 19th century to the present day, covering major movements including photography, the Bengal School, the Progressive Artists from Bombay, and many different developments in Delhi and its environs since Independence.

This collection, one of the largest in private hands, is remarkable for its broad historical scope and represents critical periods in Indian art history. Besides notable names including F N Souza, M F Husain, and Somnath Hore, the collection also highlights the best works of lesser-known artists such as Prakash Karmakar, Nikhil Biswas, and J Sultan Ali who played a significant role in the development of Indian art. Alongside their strong aesthetics, the significance of many of the works in the collection is deepened by the de Boers’ personal association or encounters with several of the artists like Rameshwar Broota and Laxma Goud.

In their words, “One of the most important aspects of the collection is that it is a personal journey: it is our journey.... We are individuals following our passion and our collection is the sum of what we see and whom we meet. We have the art collection we have, with all its twists and turns.”

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