JOGEN CHOWDHURY | Untitled (Ganesha)

Acquired directly from the artist, 2008
Acquired from the above, 2018

Small spots of foxing visible around the edges. Paper is slightly undulated due to the way it has been mounted. Smudging and unevenness to pastel appears to be inherent. Some water marks visible. Accretions and wear apparent on back board and it would benefit from a replacement. This work is in good overall condition, as viewed. Please note this work has not been inspected outside its frame.
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Rejecting his stylistic predecessors from the Bengal school, and avoiding the tendency to draw too much from Western traditions, Jogen Chowdhury looked to the more folkloric aspects of Indian culture and to his own observations of Indian society for inspiration.  His works are characterised by elongated and amoebic figures rendered against a plain background, their fluid contours heightened with touches of colour, as seen in the current work. His subjects do not allow for identifying features of time or place, in stylised configurations that are uniquely his own, their bodies sagging and mutating like the vegetal tendrils that he also paints. Like many of his contemporaries, Chowdhury places an emphasis on the autobiographical narrative in his work. He references local traditions and popular visual culture to comment on the complexities and contradictions of Bengali middle-class society. He drew inspiration from folk art sources, including Kalighats and Battala woodcuts. In 1972, he moved to Delhi where he was appointed curator at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. During his time there he began to incorporate deities within his works. The current lot is an extension of the Ganesha series that Chowdhury produced there towards the end of his tenure. Chowdhury acknowledges that Ganesha is particularly favoured by the business-minded Marwari community of Calcutta. The artist reported that his representation of Ganesha is meant to represent that community, rather than the god himself.