Lot 537: RAMESHWAR BROOTA (B. 1941)

RAMESHWAR BROOTA (B. 1941)
Untitled (Two Men)
signed in Hindi and dated '70' (lower right); signed and dated 'RBroota 1970' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
34 x 48 in. (86.4 x 122 cm.)
Painted in 1970

New Delhi, Chanakya Gallery, 1970-71

The present work is an early painting with an underlying drawing style that is part of a more structural phase within Broota's oeuvre. According to the artist, the painting is one of the last works that he completed before embarking upon his famed 'Gorilla' series in the 1980s. It is a paean to the unemployed laborers that he witnessed milling around the streets during the tumult of late 60s. Upon finishing at Delhi's College of Art in 1967, Broota's ideas were infused with the idealism of a newly minted graduate who was attempting to invoke social change through his art by exposing the decay and corruption that permeated much of Indian society. He was struggling to find his artistic voice and saw parallels between his shifting artistic practice and the plight of the laborers searching for purpose to their existence.