Rabin Mondal (b.1932)

Acquired directly from the artist, Kolkata, 2002

K. Singh ed., Kingdom of Exile: A Rabin Mondal Retrospective, New Delhi, Delhi Art Gallery, 2014, p.76 + cover

Fine craquelure lines throughout entire canvas; appears stable aside from two minor abrasions at top center and center right. Very faint impressions from stretcher bars on all four sides.
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During the 1970s, a majority of Rabin Mondal’s corpus of works were based on his outrage at the mistreatment of people by those in positions of authority. He took to depicting this imbalance and abuse of power through a series titled ‘Man as King’.  Man Acting as King was painted in 1982 and is the last and most important painting from this theme. Using surreal colours with hints of neon orange and green, this work depicts a grotesque figure seated on a large chair that we assume to be a throne.  Rendered like a caricature, this solitary man has only his perceived power to keep him company. Speaking of this theme, Mondal has explained, “Through the ages, leaders have tended to misuse authority, they have exploited society through the dint of their power – but not forever, for people have always found a way to dethrone them. […] He is helpless. By dint of his position he may become king, but he is isolated, rejected by the people.” (Quoted in K. Singh ed., Manifestations VIII, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, p. 126)

Santo Datta has aptly commented, ‘Rabin’s obsession with kings, queens and emperors and the semiotics of power ushers in images that are notionally placed at the hub of power. Yet, they appear to be extremely vulnerable, cracking up as if under the load of their own sins of transgression and abuse of power. They face exile in their own empire of darkness, imprisoned in desolate interiors, which Rabin with bitter irony sometimes refers to as ‘harems’. In the context of Calcutta of the Sixties and Seventies of the last century, these images are loaded with the artist’s revulsion at the prevailing human condition…The alarming fusion of electoral politics with pointless violence, the use of private armies of musclemen recruited from the underworld, growing nepotism, graft, bribery, extortion and intimidation had all become a way of life. Long cherished political ideologies were fast losing their relevance to these emergent realities.’ (Quoted in K. Singh ed., Manifestations VIII, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, p. 131)

Through the use of colour, composition and imagery, Mondal has captured the essence of his frustration with the subject and rendered the man as a pathetic and pitiful figure. This distinctive issue coupled with the emotions that Mondal elicits, is what makes this painting so powerful.