Important Notice

A dedicated documenter of the city of Mumbai and its metropolitan ways of life, Jitish Kallat's large- format paintings reveal the nuances of urban existence in a megalopolis that is allied to both the past and the future through a cipher of images, text and subtle references. It is against the hyper-urban background of this mega-city, with its own cycles of decay and regeneration, that Kallat expresses the vulnerability of its residents like... A dedicated documenter of the city of Mumbai and its metropolitan ways of life, Jitish Kallat's large- format paintings reveal the nuances of urban existence in a megalopolis that is allied to both the past and the future through a cipher of images, text and subtle references. It is against the hyper-urban background of this mega-city, with its own cycles of decay and regeneration, that Kallat expresses the vulnerability of its residents like himself.

In the present lot, from the artist's series of canvases titled Father-Father, "…Kallat refers both to his own relationship with his newborn son, as well as the way his city, Mumbai, defines father-son relationships" (Paths of Progression, Saffronart and Bodhi Art exhibition catalogue, 2005, not paginated). Like the city, this type of relationship is symbolic of dualities like continuity and change, permanence and mortality. According to Ranjit Hoskote, however, the image of the child, carried forward from Kallat's early works, is meant to be an uplifting one, representing "…an archetypal symbol of hope, an explorer who comes anew to the experience of the world" ("Entering the Maze: Recent Paintings by Jitish Kallat", Ibid., Gallery Chemould exhibition catalogue, 2000-01, not paginated).

This canvas also illuminates Kallat's fascination with the vivid colours of Pop Art and stark imagery of agitprop posters. In his works from the period, "…Kallat has re-wired his aesthetic in distinctive ways, moving towards a treatment of surface, image and reference that is more informal, that travels lighter, and that is coded with and updated set of references…these new works attest to a conspicuous loosening-up of colour: theirs is a fresh, bright chromatics dominated by pinks, cyans and yellows. These surfaces are also marked by a flatness that is alternately delicious and disturbing: Kallat has adapted the strategies of the billboard, in order to operate between the opposites, as he suggests, of Agit-Prop on the one hand and Pop on the other. It could also be suggested that Op Art and History Painting form another crossing of axes for the present work" (Ranjit Hoskote, "The Pictorial Declarative: Reflections on Jitish Kallat's Recent Works 2002-2005", Jitish Kallat, Walsh Gallery and Gallery Chemould exhibition catalogue, 2004-05, p. 39).

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