Satish Gujral

Sotheby's, New Delhi, 8-9 October 1992, lot 175

There are very small accretions, and some minor brown staining scattered across the surface of the artwork. There is light craquelure in areas of impasto, and some pin-hole sized losses. There is a small area of possible consolidation in the upper right quadrant of this painting. As viewed.
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Painter, sculptor, muralist, architect and interior designer, Satish Gujral has been described as a true 'renaissance artist' whose work marks a lifelong journey of experimentation within a range of media and forms of expression. In 1952 Gujral won a scholarship to apprentice at the Palacio Nationale de Belles Artesin Mexico under Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco.  Siqueiros along with Rivera and Orozco had established Mexican Muralism, a tradition of painting large-scale images of protest and nationalistic messages on public buildings. Gujral’s discontent with the social situation in India during the partition fueled this form of artistic output and cemented his interest in the subject.

This influential phase in his corpus led to his discovery of ceramic, granite and papier-mache as mediums. He also learned how to incorporate local culture into his art. During a time when Western ideals were affecting and influencing Indian art, Gujral was creating his very own aesthetic full of Indian symbology. Texture and colour became as important as the subject itself, as evidenced by this striking painting.