130-131 / 168
130
131
72
GHULAM RASOOL SANTOSH
(1929 ‒ 1997)
Untitled
Signed in Devnagari (on the reverse); dated and inscribed
'85 / SANTOSH / GARHI STUDIO' (on the reverse)
1985
Acrylic and graphite on canvas
53 x 39 in (134.6 x 99.1 cm)
Rs 20,00,000 ‒ 30,00,000
$ 29,855 ‒ 44,780
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from the artist’s family, New Delhi
Private Collection, Mumbai
Private Collection, New Delhi
Ghulam Rasool Santosh was a pioneer of neo‒Tantric art.
Works such as the present lot “... were neither totally abstract
nor non‒representational. They were imbued with specific
symbolic connotations and fused with the mysterious
juxtaposition of celestial geometric forms, and complex
mystical colours inspired by a personal symbolic vision.”
(Pran Nath Mago,
Contemporary Art in India: A Perspective
,
New Delhi: National Book Trust India, 2001, pp. 94, 95) The
ambiguous figuration is created through geometric shapes
and a precise symmetry which is complemented by a
bright, glowing colour palette.
In an essay titled “A Post‒Independence Initiative in Art,”
fellow artist Nilima Sheikhwrites of GR Santosh’s work, “The
interlock of the contour in traditional Indian figuration with
the Cubist design that had emerged at Baroda found its
corollary in contemporary exotica – the cultic celebration
of the contour via the abstractions of votive imagery and
colour field dynamics.” (Gulam Mohammed Sheikh ed.,
Contemporary Art in Baroda
, New Delhi: Tulika, 1997, p. 80)