Lot 130: Surendran Nair (b. 1956)

Surendran Nair (b. 1956)
Prosthesis for a Pro-Aesthete (Cuckoonebulopolis)
signed, titled and dated 'Surendran Prothesis for A Pro-Aesthete (Cuckoonebulopolis) - 2001' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
41 5/8 x 30 in. (105.8 x 76 cm.)
Painted in 2001

Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi

Manipulating context and style, Kerala-born artist, Surendran Nair appropriates ancient Indian iconography to create complex and provocative critiques of contemporary culture. Mixing flickers of surrealism into prevailing notions of reality, Nair creates a body of work which straddles the boundary between the mythological and the historical. Part of a recent series begun in 2000 entitled Cuckoonebulopolis, Nair finds both title and inspiration in the ancient Greek tragedy, The Birds, by Aristophanes. This reference alludes to the quest for Utopia, identified in the text as the city of the birds.