Biren De

Osian's Mumbai, 5 December 2002, lot 85

The painting is in good overall condition, as viewed. Small accretions are visible throughout, hence a light surface clean is recommended. UV light: Scattered small spots of retouching are visible under ultraviolet light, particularly around the left edge of the painting, within the centre, centre right and the lower right quadrant.
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The present lot, a luminescent and colour-filled canvas radiating energy is a classic example of Biren De’s most important work. Although much of his early work is either figurative or portraiture, De is best known for his “Neo-tantric” themed paintings that attempt to merge Hindu and Buddhist practices with modernist principles, and bridge abstraction and figuration.

It was during a trip to New York in 1958 that De was exposed to Abstract Expressionism which sparked his interest in abstraction, and his association with Ajit Mookerjee after his return to India got him interested in Tantric iconography. 'De’s familiarity with Mookerjee’s collection of Tantric art contributed a great deal to the development of his new abstraction in the 1960s. Even before the publication of Mookerjee’s Tantra Art in 1966, De exhibited his new iconography in a solo show at the Kumar Gallery, Delhi, in 1964' (S. Bean, “Biren De,” Midnight to the Boom: Painting in India after Independence, Thames and Hudson, London, 2013, p. 82).

De’s work has been shown at a number of prestigious exhibitions and venues including the Salon de Mai, Paris (1951); Sao Paulo Art Biennial (1961); Venice Biennial (1962); Ten Contemporary Indian Painters, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (1965); Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1982); Neo-Tantra: Contemporary Indian Painting Inspired by Tradition, University of California, Los Angeles (1985). His works have been acquired by distinguished institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, the Berlin State Museum, the National Gallery, Prague, amongst others.