Untitled

ANOTHER PROPERTY

Oil on masonite
1986
66 5/8 × 29 1/2 in. (169.2 × 75 cm.)

Signed and dated ‘Anjolie Ela Menon 86’ upper right

Anjolie Ela Menon was born in Burnpur, West Bengal, in 1940. She began pursuing art while she was a student at Lawrence School, Tamil Nadu, selling many paintings by the early age of fifteen. Later, she obtained a degree in English Literature from Miranda House, Delhi University. Despite initially enrolling at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai, Menon left mid-way to further her studies in Europe at the Atelier Fresque, École Nationale des Beaux- Arts in Paris in 1959. As an art student in Paris, Menon immersed herself in the study of Medieval and Byzantine art, which would later influence her figurative style.

The 1970s saw a series of nudes set in sombre contexts. Inspired by sculptures of the Madonna, Menon delved into various iterations of the female nude over her six-decade- long career. ‘Slowly the image of the Madonna which was also a recurring theme in her work began to coalesce with the nude, so semi-nude figures exposing a single breast had echoes of medieval mothers suckling their God children. These could have been Mary or Yashoda.’ (Isana Murti, ‘Nudes’, Anjolie Ela Menon: Through the Patina, exhibition catalogue, Vadehra Art Gallery, 2010, New Delhi, p. 130)

Around the same time, the window emerged as a recurring motif in Menon’s artwork, gradually evolving into a potent metaphor. Gaining autonomy as a ‘found’ object, the wooden window frame became an integral part of Menon’s personal idiom. This transition occurred serendipitously when, in the mid-1970s, Menon used an old window frame found in her garage to frame a painting. ‘As she recalls: I just nailed the painting to the back of the window and the result was rather intriguing – and by that happy accident, a new genre was born.’ (Artist statement, ‘Fenestrations’, ibid., p. 165) Menon’s fascination with ‘junk’ led her to frequent Mumbai’s Lakkar Bazaar, where she discovered ornate windows salvaged from demolished Parsi mansions. These discarded windows, with their unique histories, ‘were like a trigger impulse and I used these windows extensively for about a decade from 1979 onwards.’ (ibid.)

Drawing from two of the periods within Medieval art, Early Christian and Romanesque, the figure in the present lot assumes a frontal perspective with an imposing presence. Hauntingly elongated in form, with darkened eyes, the subject averts her gaze from the audience. The glowing gold backdrop adds a luminosity to the figure’s diaphanous white covering which is draped over her head and body, and is also reflected in the golden tones of her body. Pensive, the subject acts as both, the observer and the observed, restrained and defined within the bounds of the wooden window-frame.
Condition: The colours of the original are similar to the catalogue illustration. Some minor hairline surface scratches visible. When examined under UV light, one abrasion has been re-touched to the right of the figure’s shoulder. Overall good condition.