Lot 233
  • 233

RAQIB SHAW | Arched Blossom Gatherer I

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
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Description

  • Raqib Shaw
  • Arched Blossom Gatherer I
  • signed, titled and dated 2011 on the reverse
  • acrylic, glitter, enamel and rhinestones on paper laid down on board
  • board: 153 by 119 cm. 60 1/4 by 46 7/8 in.
  • framed: 173.5 by 140 cm. 68 1/4 by 55 1/8 in.

Provenance

White Cube, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited

London, White Cube, Raqib Shaw: Paradise Lost, September - November 2011

Condition

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although it fails to convey the metallic quality of the rhinestones and metallic enamel visible in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Arched Blossom Gatherer I is a mesmerising painting and a stellar ode to craftsmanship by Raqib Shaw. Executed in 2011, the opulent and detailed iconography in the present work is a notable example of Shaw’s hallmark conflation of culturally alien motifs with his playful preoccupation with mythological figures, whilst the composition and shape of the work are in dialogue with the central ideals of European Old Master painters, especially with those of Hieronymus Bosch. During a youth spent in Kashmir, Shaw experienced the destruction of his country’s naturally exuberant and paradisiac environs as a result of the outbreak of civil war. Atrocities witnessed at that time would inform Shaw’s profound preoccupation with the human psyche and manifest his devotion to aggressive beauty as a passionate expression of the living. As a result, scintillating states of ecstasy and explicit conditions are brilliantly captured in both animal and mythical creatures in his opulent works. The anthropomorphic attributes of these figures serve as an invitation to the viewer to indulge and share in the emotion that Shaw’s paintings actually represent: an uncompromising joy for life. With regards especially to the decisive role that colours play in his oeuvre, Norman Rosenthal speaks of Shaw’s ability “to conjure up a world within his paintings of cultural contradictions that defy the imagination. Colour achieves an almost blinding intensity and precision that exists in both a horrific, and beautiful universe derived from personal experience based on self-knowledge and dream psychology” (Norman Rosenthal, ‘Raqib Shaw – Conjuror of Magical Worlds’, The Telegraph, 20 May 2009, online).

In its employment of colourful phantasmagoria in an aesthetically charged setting, Arched Blossom Gatherer I utterly embodies the cultural hybridity that lends Shaw's oeuvre its constant intrigue. A scene that assembles the imagery of Japanese classical drawing is enveloped by an arc that on the one hand follows the compositional tenets of European old master painting whilst on the other it is rendered in an Oriental fashion. Masterfully uniting these different languages in one painting, the artist achieves a rare creation of complex beauty that is a gloriously expressive and indulgent celebration of life. The present work is part of the highly acclaimed series Paradise Lost, which by name alludes to John Milton’s milestone of English poetry and aesthetically to the most formative experience of the artist’s life in his native Kashmir, when his paradise as he knew it was ravaged by civil war.

The masterful depiction of explicit conditions conveyed through a brilliant signature aesthetic of opulence renders Arched Blossom Gatherer I an exquisite encapsulation of the central ideas and expressions of Shaw.