Page 110 - Pundole's Auction M0015

55 #

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL
COLLECTION

JOGEN CHOWDHURY

b.?1939

Seated Man

Ink and pastel on paper
1980
9? × 9¾ in. (24.9 × 24.8 cm.)

Signed and dated ‘Jogen 1980’ lower right

??25,00,000?–?35,00,000

$ 37,315?–?52,240

Jogen Chowdhury is best known for his small format works
executed in a combination of ink, pastel and watercolour
using a distinctive crosshatching style that he developed in
the early 1970s. The tight network of intersecting lines are
usually reserved for the central figure or object which is set
against a deep, black background, thereby increasing the
overall visual impact.

His choice of imagery is extensive, ranging from the human
figure, to fruits, flowers and an entire vocabulary of dream-
pictures and imaginary beings. The figures themselves are
infused with a slightly distorted quality, bordering on the
grotesque. ‘They usually appear as clumsy, monstrous
creatures, with demented faces, engulfed by flabby,
pendulous flesh. Their bodies appear to be made of a
rubbery integument as they heave and swell within the
folds of musty, mouldering upholstery.’ (Deepak Ananth,
‘An Engagement with Reality’, India: Myth and Reality
Aspects of Modern Indian Art, exhibition catalogue,
Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1982, p.?59)

The current work was created at a time when Chowdhury
produced an entire series from a cross-section of social
milieus. Their moods are hard to read, ranging from satirical
to a more complex psychology, but hinting at a ‘deep seated
anger and loathing of certain manifestations of human
nature. As the figures here are isolated, rather than placed in
upholstered settings, the social origins of the artist’s anger
are less defined, but not his insight into their deformities.
Their faces provide the clues to their inner states: they rarely
confront the viewer head on, or return his gaze. They seem
to be slowly consumed from within, touched by a strange
malaise that forces on them an enfeebling passivity.’ (ibid.)

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