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Lot 133

 

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The present lot is part of a series of double-sided works by Anju Dodiya, first exhibited as part of Throne of Frost, a 2007 exhibition of site-specific installations held at the opulent Durbar Hall of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda. Each piece in the series features a watercolour and charcoal painting on paper, paired with an embroidered mattress. These elements were mounted within free-standing wooden frames positioned so that the... The present lot is part of a series of double-sided works by Anju Dodiya, first exhibited as part of Throne of Frost, a 2007 exhibition of site-specific installations held at the opulent Durbar Hall of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda. Each piece in the series features a watercolour and charcoal painting on paper, paired with an embroidered mattress. These elements were mounted within free-standing wooden frames positioned so that the painting faced inward with the mattress facing the viewer. Scattered shards of broken mirrors lay within the formation, reflecting fragments of the paintings and the grandeur of the Durbar Hall.

Dodiya’s paintings are layered with poetic symbolism and personal mythology. Her theatrical cast of figures draw from an eclectic array of influences that span Renaissance paintings and tapestries, Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, courtly traditions across cultures, mythology from both East and West, folklore, and cinema. The mattress on the reverse is cloaked in textured fabric and embroidered with heraldic symbols, speaking to the artist’s enduring fascination with the chivalric age. Art historian Tasneem Mehta remarks, “Dodiya’s extraordinary visual layering [...] is a metaphor for the mind and its many deceptions and conceits. Her protagonists are the various selves she battles. The violence is almost palpable [...] The charcoal women, finely chiselled yet uncompromising and cold, skilfully mock-accept notions of beauty and the heroic that traditional art and myth have valorised. [...] The artist also combines a skilful juxtaposition of materials and mediums-the soft sharpness of charcoal, a medium almost ephemeral in its consistency; the sensuous transparency of watercolour; the sculptural hardness of slate-grey metal; and textiles with their history of enduring feminine engagement. [...] The colour black is both ominous and defining. It contains even as it negates. Its harshness disrupts the precious beauty of the watercolours so skilfully deployed by the artist.” (Tasneem Mehta, “The Seductions of Horror”, Art India Vol XII [Issue I, Quarter I], 2007, p. 117)

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