Lot 91: Rameshwar Broota (b. 1941)

Rameshwar Broota (b. 1941)
Untitled
signed and dated 'R. Broota RAMESHWAR BROOTA 2000 Sep.' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas scraped with blade
60 x 26 in. (152.5 x 66 cm.)
Executed in 2000

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The male body has been a predominant feature of Rameshwar Broota's oeuvre - simultaneously a site for conflict and for its resolution. The artist's characteristic reverse technique of extracting forms from the canvas began in the late 1970s and is here employed to great effect, simultaneously masking yet revealing. This unique, subtractive process involves scraping away layers of paint by nicking a blade across the canvas to create nuanced tones and expressive textures.

Untitled (lot 91) presents part of an athletic male torso - a disembodied yet universal 'Adam' of the twenty-first century. The virile figure exudes strength against its dark surroundings, though is contained by the horizontal bars of an unspecified structure. Via this juxtaposition of flesh and inanimate bars, the artist is perhaps commenting on the human condition in an increasingly mechanised world.
Similarly Counterparts - V (lot 94) is a complex exploration of de-personalised anatomy. Again there is no one, narrative theme but a partially displayed scenario activated by the viewer's imagination. No one specific reading of the scene, but many - dependent upon the individual before the work. In this way the viewer exists as 'counterpart' to the subjects portrayed on the canvas, and 'counterpart' to other viewers of Broota's work.