A. Ramachandran

Sotheby's New York, 20 September 2002, lot 159

New Delhi, Kumar Gallery, Retrospective, 1978

A. Ramachandran - A Retrospective, Kumar Gallery, 1978, p. 12 illus.

Siva Kumar, R.,  Ramachandran: A Retrospective, Volume I, New Delhi, 2003, p. 201 illus.

Good overall condition.
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In the mid 1970s, Ramachandran began painting images of tribal communities around Udaipur in Rajasthan. This was a decided shift from his earlier anguished and tortured imagery of the body and was precipitated by his newfound admiration for rural life and landscapes. 'As his painting began to relate to his visual experiences in Rajasthan the [...] figures and landscape became more organic. [...] Despite their decorativeness the clumsiness of the real everywhere, and the colouring is not only luminous but also reflective of the season or the time of the day. From here onwards it would be the intermingling of the real and decorative that would characterise Ramachandran's art.' (R. Siva Kumar, Ramachandran: A Retrospective, Volume I, New Delhi, 2003, p. 213 - 214).

Fuelled by the possibility of creating sensuous and imaginary worlds using the vibrant colours and patterns found abundantly in that area, Ramachandran incorporated these indigenous decorative elements into his painting. This work is replete with the fabulous colours and fabrics with which the desert women and men clothe themselves. Ramachandran devotes great emphasis to these vibrant saris, petticoats and costumes and this forms the main focal point of this work. The elements in the painting are otherworldly - purple skies, swirling clouds and surreal plants curling and twisting around the subject in the centre. 'In Yellow Robe she is seated in a luscious nocturnal landscape with dark clouds gathering up in scrolls behind her and her body - hidden behind the luminous yellow sheet she holds up - becomes an unseen enigma and an object of desire.' (ibid., p. 209).

The narrative styling and visual drama of Ramachandran's large-scale works is derived in part from his extraordinary background in traditional Indian art history and epic literature. In 1957, the artist received his MA in Malayalam literature; then pursued a diploma in Fine Arts at Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan. In 1964, he completed his doctoral thesis on Keralan mural painting and finally dedicated himself to art history instruction as Professor Emeritus at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi until his retirement in 1992.