Lot 18: Untitled

TV Santhosh (b. 1968)
Untitled
signed and inscribed 'T.V. SANTHOSH OIL ON CANVAS SIZE: 4.5'x 6'; signed again 'TV Santhosh' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
54¼ x 70 in. (137.7 x 177.8 cm.)
Painted in 2005

Saffronart, 6-7 September 2006, lot 98

Property of a Private Collection, Europe
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
A world where one does not know who the real enemy is, yet 'terror' is the common word for both those who resist and those who attack. In this painting the protagonist stands with his back towards us, gun slung across the body and hands clutching on to a bone. Tension is built up through the juxtaposition of the gun and the bone, representing authority, power and death. The tightly clenched fists holding the bone gives away the fear that the protagonist suffers even though yielding a gun. Drama is further enhanced through the strong diagonal, horizontal and parallel lines making the composition extremely compact and terse.
In his unique, signature style, TV Santhosh creates a powerful image of the horrors of war. Choosing photographic imagery as his base, he solarizes the images creating works which conjure the style of an x-ray or film negative. As certain elements get deleted and become unrecognizable, they reveal an event's hidden implications. In the process, the elements of 'local' lose their specificity, attaining instead a universal significance and vice versa.