Important Notice

“Jogen Chowdhury…is an artist with a singular sensibility. His innate sense of rhythm, his subtle ability to uncover the sensuality at the heart of events, to draw them together and to slip his longings and fears into a variety of things, truly distinguishes his work of the last 40 years. Behind his ability to gather everything in a cadenced embrace lies his genius to reach out and internalize the ‘other’” (R. Siva Kumar, Jogen Chowdhury –... “Jogen Chowdhury…is an artist with a singular sensibility. His innate sense of rhythm, his subtle ability to uncover the sensuality at the heart of events, to draw them together and to slip his longings and fears into a variety of things, truly distinguishes his work of the last 40 years. Behind his ability to gather everything in a cadenced embrace lies his genius to reach out and internalize the ‘other’” (R. Siva Kumar, Jogen Chowdhury – Enigmatic Visions, Glenbarra Art Museum, Fukuoka, 2005, p. 9).

In this ink and pastel work from 1999, we see the passive sensuality and longings that Siva Kumar describes in Chowdhury’s rendering of the ‘other.’ Here, a nude in contemplative repose is quietly observed by another lady wearing a sari at the edge of the frame. As is the artist’s convention, the amoebic human figure and its surroundings are built up through strong lines and tiny cross-hatches, and later coloured lightly with soft, dry pastels. The sari, only partially visible, is intricately patterned like most of the fabrics the artist portrays, while the background is pitch-black, another characteristic of Chowdhury’s work, heightening the ‘otherness’ of the central figure even more.

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