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Lot 36

 

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Born in 1958 in Mysore, Nataraj Sharma grew up in Egypt, England and Zambia, before moving back to India to study art. The artist's experience of multiple migrations early in his life enabled him to learn about and absorb global socio-political happenings, which have prominent place among the multiple influences that define his practice. The ease with which Sharma amalgamates experiences and influences in his work is mirrored in the fluidity... Born in 1958 in Mysore, Nataraj Sharma grew up in Egypt, England and Zambia, before moving back to India to study art. The artist's experience of multiple migrations early in his life enabled him to learn about and absorb global socio-political happenings, which have prominent place among the multiple influences that define his practice. The ease with which Sharma amalgamates experiences and influences in his work is mirrored in the fluidity with which he handles different genres and mediums, moving swiftly and convincingly between figure studies and landscapes in oil and acrylic on canvas and large scale installations. Despite the multitude of sources he draws from, he has been successful in imbibing his oeuvre with a distinctive character which is strongly individualized and strikingly bold.

The present lot, a large diptych, was painted in 2004. A year later, Sharma transformed the theme of this painting, titled Air Show, into a large scale installation for an exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Peter Nagy asked him about the source of his inspiration, to which Sharma responded, "Some time back the Indian Air Force had put up an air display in Baroda. Thousands of people went to the Harni Airport to see the show and I was one of them. For a long time nothing seemed to happen and then suddenly the planes started appearing, like tiny insects on the horizon. They grew in size, flying in formation directly above us, and with them came the space-swallowing, time-stopping scream of jet engines. We all felt the thrill that power and aggression brings to the onlooker. I followed the movements of the planes with a video camera. Later at home, I hooked it up to the TV and saw the whole show repeatedly. There was a moment when two jets crossed paths at tremendous speed and seems to miss each other only by inches. Low, relatively sedate helicopters floated slowly across in horizontal lines. One of them flew right above the crowd and released a shower of rose petals. Beauty and violence, play and aggression" ("Nataraj Sharma", Icon Indian Contemporary, Venice, 2005, p.58).

Vast, sparsely populated spaces like the one in the present lot are a recurring feature in Sharma's work. Interestingly, they seem to have taken on a figurative character; they don't merely represent immense abstract spaces, but have a presence that gives them a tactility normally ascribed to figurative elements. In his interview with Peter Nagy, Sharma explained his interest in landscapes, noting, "Over the past few years, I've had a growing interest in looking at landscape. There's something so sad and beautiful about being at a height and looking down at a vast horizon, still just a small section of this earth. Being distanced and away from people, being able to see a larger pattern, perhaps some sort of meaning, without getting caught up in the details. I've always wanted to paint an enormous view of the earth, broken up into units not just for practical purposes, but also to make this vastness more comprehensible" (Ibid.).

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