Lot 749: Satish Gujral (Indian, b. 1929), Days of Glory, Signed in Urdu l.r., Condition: Minor surface grime and abrasions, tacking nails to per

Satish Gujral (Indian, b. 1929)

Days of Glory
Signed in Urdu l.r.
Oil on Masonite, 40 1/2 x 36 in. (102.9 x 91.4 cm), framed.
Condition: Minor surface grime and abrasions, tacking nails to perimeter.

Provenance: Purchased from the artist; thence by family descent, Massachusetts.

N.B. We wish to thank the artist for confirming the authenticity of the lot.

Satish Gujral was born in Jhelum, a former city in West Punjab, now Pakistan. From the ages of fourteen to nineteen, he attended the Mayo School of Art, which was the first colonial art school in Punjab since its annexation to British India in 1849. Gujral continued his education between 1944 to 1947 at the venerable Sir J. J. School of Art in Bombay.
In his late twenties, Gujral traveled on scholarship to Mexico City to study at the Palacio de Bellas Artes with David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. (1) It was here that he was introduced to the mural format as a vehicle for social protest of the working class.
The subject of the present work is one that Gujral has revisited over time, relating to the struggle of displacement during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Though India gained its independence from colonial Britain, millions along the new borders lost their homes and became refugees in the mass migration. Days of Glory depicts a state of helplessness but also quiet dignity--the figures are undifferentiated and restrained (without visual, auditory or tactile senses), but the compacted depth of space conveys a solidarity that speaks to the power of their collective experience.

(1)