Lot 139: BAIJU PARTHAN (b. India 1956)

Pneuma (Air)
signed, titled and dated on all reverse of the three canvases: 'PNEUMA' (AIR) [A/B/C] (Triptych) Baiju Parthan - 2004
acrylic on canvas
Total: 48 x 120 1/4 in. (122 x 305.5 cm.)

Through his use of cultural fragments, i.e. pieces of photographs, web icons, geometric shapes and abstract patterns, which he assembles into complex painterly collages, Parthan expounds upon the theme of the individual and his place in an increasingly technical society. Pneuma, literally the soul, is expressed through the metaphor of flight with the depiction of a Wright Brothers-era airplane at far left, ambiguously tipped both towards the air and the ground. While these early experiments of flight represent man's ethereal hope and advancement through the unlimited potential of technology, his transcendence is not necessarily assured in an uncertain future.