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Moral Counsel

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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT COLLECTOR

Acrylic and oil on canvas
1998
60 x 33 1/4 in. (152.5 x 84.5 cm.)

Signed, dated and inscribed ‘Sudhir Patwardhan / ‘MORAL COUNSEL’ 1998 / Acrylic & Oil / (Oil glazes / nude woman)’ on reverse

EXHIBITED:
Sudhir Patwardhan Paintings and Drawings, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 10-22 February, 1999.

LITERATURE:
Sudhir Patwardhan Paintings and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1999, unpaginated, illustrated.

The central protagonist of the current painting is the squat, squarely-built male that has come to be the trademark of Sudhir Patwardhan’s canvases. These figures may encapsulate observations from the world around him, or, may be reflections of his own personal experiences. Moral Counsel is one of the few allegorical works painted by him. This genre of his paintings refers directly to works created by other artists.

This particular work is dominated by a large, adolescent male figure, who stands with his back to the audience, watching a scene inspired by the 15th Century Flemish altarpiece of The Last Judgment by Rogier van der Weyden. The crouching female at the top, similar to the females in the lower registers of the altarpiece, is being yanked forcibly by her hair into the dark underbelly of the netherworld, as consequences for the sins she has committed. The young man, perhaps waiting for his own day of judgment, is forced to confront his own moral reality with reference to complex issues such as sexuality and sin, control and containment, and the resulting punishments that undoubtedly follow. A suited figure, smaller in scale, and intended to be a figure of authority, looks out and points to the unfolding scene above, as if drawing the viewer’s attention to the eventuality that ultimately awaits everyone. A rectangular architectural panel, reminiscent of those seen in Mughal gardens, floats in the lower right, suggestive, as the artist himself explains, of ‘a turbulent stream contained by culture’. The unnatural scale of the figures also lends a strongly surreal element to the painting.

‘Patwardhan has, therefore, long been preoccupied with the relationship between artist and subject; he knows that the finished painting will unfailingly reflect the delicate balance between intimacy and distance, tenderness and exploitation that is involved here. Patwardhan maintains that balance with an enviable degree of tact and finesse: his figures are never one-dimensional transcriptions from life, but layered entities in which are fused the chance observation, the residue of memory and the obsessional detail.’ (Ranjit Hoskote, ‘Field Trips for the Image: Recent Works by Sudhir Patwardhan’, Sudhir Patwardhan Paintings and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1999, unpaginated)

# Import duty at 11% will be charged on the hammer price and GST will be applicable on the total amount of the hammer price plus the import duty.
Condition: The colours of the original are less saturated and lighter than the catalogue illustration. Overall good condition.

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23 Feb 2023
New Zealand, Hamilton
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[ translate ]

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT COLLECTOR

Acrylic and oil on canvas
1998
60 x 33 1/4 in. (152.5 x 84.5 cm.)

Signed, dated and inscribed ‘Sudhir Patwardhan / ‘MORAL COUNSEL’ 1998 / Acrylic & Oil / (Oil glazes / nude woman)’ on reverse

EXHIBITED:
Sudhir Patwardhan Paintings and Drawings, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 10-22 February, 1999.

LITERATURE:
Sudhir Patwardhan Paintings and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1999, unpaginated, illustrated.

The central protagonist of the current painting is the squat, squarely-built male that has come to be the trademark of Sudhir Patwardhan’s canvases. These figures may encapsulate observations from the world around him, or, may be reflections of his own personal experiences. Moral Counsel is one of the few allegorical works painted by him. This genre of his paintings refers directly to works created by other artists.

This particular work is dominated by a large, adolescent male figure, who stands with his back to the audience, watching a scene inspired by the 15th Century Flemish altarpiece of The Last Judgment by Rogier van der Weyden. The crouching female at the top, similar to the females in the lower registers of the altarpiece, is being yanked forcibly by her hair into the dark underbelly of the netherworld, as consequences for the sins she has committed. The young man, perhaps waiting for his own day of judgment, is forced to confront his own moral reality with reference to complex issues such as sexuality and sin, control and containment, and the resulting punishments that undoubtedly follow. A suited figure, smaller in scale, and intended to be a figure of authority, looks out and points to the unfolding scene above, as if drawing the viewer’s attention to the eventuality that ultimately awaits everyone. A rectangular architectural panel, reminiscent of those seen in Mughal gardens, floats in the lower right, suggestive, as the artist himself explains, of ‘a turbulent stream contained by culture’. The unnatural scale of the figures also lends a strongly surreal element to the painting.

‘Patwardhan has, therefore, long been preoccupied with the relationship between artist and subject; he knows that the finished painting will unfailingly reflect the delicate balance between intimacy and distance, tenderness and exploitation that is involved here. Patwardhan maintains that balance with an enviable degree of tact and finesse: his figures are never one-dimensional transcriptions from life, but layered entities in which are fused the chance observation, the residue of memory and the obsessional detail.’ (Ranjit Hoskote, ‘Field Trips for the Image: Recent Works by Sudhir Patwardhan’, Sudhir Patwardhan Paintings and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1999, unpaginated)

# Import duty at 11% will be charged on the hammer price and GST will be applicable on the total amount of the hammer price plus the import duty.
Condition: The colours of the original are less saturated and lighter than the catalogue illustration. Overall good condition.

[ translate ]
Sale price
Unlock
Estimate
Unlock
Reserve
INR
Time, Location
23 Feb 2023
New Zealand, Hamilton
Auction House
Unlock