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In Ravinder Reddy's monumental sculptural renditions of the female form, the artist gives visual expression to pays tribute to feminine sensuality, fecundity and power as they have been variously manifested in India - from age-old sacred temple art to more contemporary, secular images drawn from the popular, even kitschy culture of the bazaar.

As Yashodhara Dalmia notes, "In coalescing the ritual, mythic, the street and the everyday,... In Ravinder Reddy's monumental sculptural renditions of the female form, the artist gives visual expression to pays tribute to feminine sensuality, fecundity and power as they have been variously manifested in India - from age-old sacred temple art to more contemporary, secular images drawn from the popular, even kitschy culture of the bazaar.

As Yashodhara Dalmia notes, "In coalescing the ritual, mythic, the street and the everyday, Reddy visually surfs many frontiers of art that have emerged in recent times. In many ways his work could be seen as installations which concretely extend into space and invite other realities. Yet the participatory aspect is absent, for Reddy's voluminous masses cannot be honed into but stand apart from the audience. As the artist Gieve Patel states, "their sensuality is serene, in most instances the sexual impulse does not speak of excitement but of fulfilment." The objecthood of Reddy's works places them undeniably in the present and yet their decodifications seem to be heraldic" ("The Paradigms for Post-Modern Art in India", Contemporary Indian Art: Other Realities, Marg Publications, Mumbai, 2002, p. 79).

The artist's larger than life painted heads like the present lot have wide eyes lined with kohl, elaborately moulded venis or hair ornaments decorated with flowers, bejeweled ears and noses, and brightly painted lips that are expectantly pursed. Unafraid of embracing kitsch in his work, Reddy uses his overwhelming sculptures to explore its role and place in the development of Indian culture. Combining the high art of religious icons with more common and loud references to Indian cinema and bazaars in his women's vivid lipstick and finely detailed ornaments, the artist provides his viewers with a unique perspective on both historical and contemporary India. As King explains, "Reddy brings Indian goddesses into the contemporary world, turns contemporary women into goddesses, and traces the popular culture path between goddess and pinup" (Margery King, Ravinder Reddy, The Andy Warhol Museum exhibition catalogue, 2001, not paginated).

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