Important Notice

Like some of his contemporaries, Jogen Chowdhury's artistic vision is the yield of a journey through understanding art in the context of society, politics, and his own beliefs and experiments. His works are characterised by a distortion of figures, rendering them grotesque. Yet it is the kind of grotesque that appeals to our psyche -a perverse pleasure in viewing our faults and ugliness through this artist-mirror.

Remarking on the... Like some of his contemporaries, Jogen Chowdhury's artistic vision is the yield of a journey through understanding art in the context of society, politics, and his own beliefs and experiments. His works are characterised by a distortion of figures, rendering them grotesque. Yet it is the kind of grotesque that appeals to our psyche -a perverse pleasure in viewing our faults and ugliness through this artist-mirror.

Remarking on the artist's treatment of his subject, R Siva Kumar observes Chowdhury's elevation of women in his oeuvre. "Men do not measure up to women in his paintings. The men are often older and frailer. But essentially it is not age or well-being that separates them, it is substance." ("Jogen Chowdhury: Lyric and Enigmatic Visions", Jogen Chowdhury, Enigmatic Visions: Works from the Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan: Glenbarra Art Museum and Jogen Chowdhury, 2005, p11)

"Lady" stands in stark contrast to some of his earlier, foreboding works. Jogen speaks of using a lot of black in his paintings, indicative of a void. This void is absent in this painting, which shows a tenderness from the artist in his treatment. The distortion characteristic of Chowdhury's works still remains. Yet it doesn't serve as a political or intellectual comment. Its aestheticism supersedes any political messages the painting might be indicative of.

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