Lot 104: Mrinalini Mukherjee

Natural History #16
Bronze
19 3/4 x 6 3/8 x 5 5/8 in. (50 x 16 x 14 cm.)

P. Nagy, Mrinalini Mukherjee: New Bronzes, Nature Morte, New Delhi, 2004, p. 25, illustrated.

Mrinalini Mukherjee quotes a long and venerated Indian sculptural tradition in her first series of works executed in bronze. Commenting ironically on the durability and permanence of her medium, Mukherjee casts forms which evoke the delicate and decaying shape of vegetables, plants and at times insinuate the gnarled masses of human muscles and organs. Executing the works in excruciating detail, her forms transcend their resilient medium becoming fragile and shockingly real. These bronzes, a dramatic departure from the woven hemp sculptures for which she is most known, still maintain a sense of the organic and corporeal without relying on the quality of handicraft that defined the earlier works.