Asiart, Rome / Air - India. 1962.
Asiart
Rome / Air - India. 1962.
Condition B+: creases, foxing and minor tears in margins, with one loss in margin into image; creases in image. Paper.
A world-renowned and widely-recognized corporate icon, Air-India's Maharaja was born in 1946. His likeness was intended to be used on corporate letterhead and on an in-flight memo pad. "Eventually, [he] became Air-India's mascot for its advertising and sales promotion activities . . . The Maharaja began merely as a rich Indian potentate, symbolizing graciousness and high living. And somewhere along the line his creators gave him a distinctive personality, his outsized moustache, the striped turban and his aquiline nose . . . Air-India calls him the Maharaja for want of a better description. But his blood isn't blue. He may look like royalty, but he isn't royal . . . Today, this naughty, diminutive Maharaja of Air-India has become a world figure. He can be a lover boy in Paris, a sumo wrestler in Tokyo, a pavement artist, a Red Indian, a monk. He can effortlessly flirt with the beauties of the world . . . He has become the most recognizable mascot the world over" (The Chandigarh Tribune, July 17, 2005).
40¼x25 inches, 102¼x63½ cm. Bombay Fine Art O & L. Works, Bombay.
Asiart
Rome / Air - India. 1962.
Condition B+: creases, foxing and minor tears in margins, with one loss in margin into image; creases in image. Paper.
A world-renowned and widely-recognized corporate icon, Air-India's Maharaja was born in 1946. His likeness was intended to be used on corporate letterhead and on an in-flight memo pad. "Eventually, [he] became Air-India's mascot for its advertising and sales promotion activities . . . The Maharaja began merely as a rich Indian potentate, symbolizing graciousness and high living. And somewhere along the line his creators gave him a distinctive personality, his outsized moustache, the striped turban and his aquiline nose . . . Air-India calls him the Maharaja for want of a better description. But his blood isn't blue. He may look like royalty, but he isn't royal . . . Today, this naughty, diminutive Maharaja of Air-India has become a world figure. He can be a lover boy in Paris, a sumo wrestler in Tokyo, a pavement artist, a Red Indian, a monk. He can effortlessly flirt with the beauties of the world . . . He has become the most recognizable mascot the world over" (The Chandigarh Tribune, July 17, 2005).
40¼x25 inches, 102¼x63½ cm. Bombay Fine Art O & L. Works, Bombay.
