Lot 27: BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE SWISS COLLECTION 1940-2006 --- IN WINTER Signed and dated 'Bikash '79' lower right and further inscribed ' --- IN WINTER" / ARTIST :- BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE / ADDRESS: 2D NABO KUMAR RAHA LANE / CALCUTTA - 700004 / INDIA' on reverse Oil on canvas 122 by 122 cm. (48 by 48 in.) Painted in 1979

Bombay, Gallery Chemould, Bikash Bhattacharjee, November 1980

Bikash Bhattacharjee, Gallery Chemould, Bombay, 1980, unpaginated

Acquired from Gallery Chemould, November 1980

This rather stark and poignant scene of an elderly couple wrapped up and seated on a park bench is typical of the artist's masterful surrealist treatment of his subjects. Here the figures are placed against a verdant background that contrasts the summer setting with the creeping winter of the subjects lives. The aged man is wearing sunglasses, masking both the winter sun and his deteriorating sight. He leans on the woman for support, she looks out at the viewer with an assertive and direct gaze. They represent a past era, their lives have been witness to a myriad of political and economic events. All they have left are each other. Bhattacharjee's wife has said that this work is from a series of paintings done over a period of time where his subjects, like the couple, have turned into lifeless stone figurines after following the same routine every day of their lives.