Lot 37: Satish Gujral (b. 1925) , Untitled Painted wood

Signed in Devanagari and dated '65' on reverse Painted wood

height 21 in. (53.5 cm.)

Painter, sculptor, muralist, architect and interior designer, Satish Gujral has been described as a true 'renaissance artist' whose work marks a lifelong journey of experimentation with a range of media and forms of expression. Gujral has won renown not just as an artist but also as an architect, his most famous commission being the design of the Belgian Embassy in New Delhi, recognized today as a highly significant building of the 20th century, for which he was awarded the Belgian 'Order of the Crown,' the only non-Belgian Architect ever to be honored with this distinction. Gujral's firm grounding in applied arts has created the basis for his understanding of medium which he has then used to analyze space and structure even in the most commonplace objects. The present sculpture with its mechanical overtones references the artist's fascination with the magic of the machine. However he also explores the architectonic qualities of the form through an elegant juxtaposition of minimalist lines and vertical and horizontal planes. During the 1960's Gujral worked with the architect Le Corbusier on the Capital Complex at the city of Chandigarh. The present work was no doubt influenced by this experience.