Biren De

Acquired directly from the artist by Thomas Gardner Allen, circa 1960s 

Thence by descent 

Tom Allen dedicated 12 years of his professional life serving as Cultural Attaché for the U.S. State Department. He loved the culture and diversity of India, and through his association with Kumar Gallery, he acquired works of art, from various Indian artists, most notably Maqbool Fida Husain, Biren De, Gulam Rasool Santosh and B. Prabha. Mr. Allen and his family lived in New Delhi (1953-58, 1962-65, 1970-71), Trivandrum (1969-70) and Calcutta (1971-73).

Biren De is best known for his ‘Neo-tantric’ abstract style, but his early figurative works are among the most charming paintings of his long career. Man Weighing Fish from 1956 reveals an astute amalgam of abstraction and figuration. The man, his scales, and the two fish are rendered from rudimentary shapes and stark, black outlines - the components of the painting are striking in their simplicity and yet form a complex, ingenious geometric configuration.

The painting also reveals De's masterful color orchestration, with the infilled areas of electric blue, rich brown, sea green, grey, white and yellow, providing a sense of exquisite equipoise. De's use of contrasting color and the juxtaposition between poker straight edges and rounded curves create a perfectly balanced composition - echoing the equilibrium of the scales the figure holds.