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拍品专文
Gulam Rasool Santosh was born into a devout Muslim family in 1929, in the outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir. His upbringing in the Kashmiri valleys was marked by a rich spiritual and ecological landscape which deeply influenced his art making.
The present lot is an important example of the artist’s early Neo-Tantric work, a style of painting inspired by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain concepts concerning the duality between male and female energies, and between the macrocosm of the Universe and the microcosm of the self. In the late 1960s, Neo-Tantrism emerged as a unique movement in contemporary South Asian art, a natural outcome of the fact that various religious practices in the Subcontinent have been intricately linked with its aesthetic ideals since ancient times. In Santosh’s paintings from this period, one can discern uniformity, symmetry, sharp geometry and a sense of visual balance. Santosh’s fascination with coded tantric diagrams is clear in his paintings featuring interlocking triangles, squares and circles, which have cosmic interpretive values related to Indian traditions. Incorporating elements from complex religious symbolism like the Sri Yantra in these works, the artist depicted them with modernist influences from his formal artistic training in Baroda.
In the present lot, painted in 1970, one can discern a seated figure in a yogic pose, likely influenced by the emphasis on specific postures and the shape of the body in Tantric texts. Perhaps a representation of Lord Shiva, the fiery oval form at the upper center could allude to the deity’s all-seeing third eye. This symbol, prominent in Hindu lore, bestows an inward vision and is also capable of burning destruction when focused outward, a simultaneity Santosh captures in this painting. The style of the painting is graphic and bold, and the artist’s lines are unwavering. From these minimal yet precise lines alone, viewers can discern the level of meditation involved in the artist’s creative process.
Santosh’s seminal Neo-Tantric paintings, like the present lot, serve as a counterpoint to the prominence of figuration in the contemporary Indian artistic traditions of his time, and paved a new path for painting that stood uniquely against works of American Abstract Expressionism as well.
The present lot is an important example of the artist’s early Neo-Tantric work, a style of painting inspired by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain concepts concerning the duality between male and female energies, and between the macrocosm of the Universe and the microcosm of the self. In the late 1960s, Neo-Tantrism emerged as a unique movement in contemporary South Asian art, a natural outcome of the fact that various religious practices in the Subcontinent have been intricately linked with its aesthetic ideals since ancient times. In Santosh’s paintings from this period, one can discern uniformity, symmetry, sharp geometry and a sense of visual balance. Santosh’s fascination with coded tantric diagrams is clear in his paintings featuring interlocking triangles, squares and circles, which have cosmic interpretive values related to Indian traditions. Incorporating elements from complex religious symbolism like the Sri Yantra in these works, the artist depicted them with modernist influences from his formal artistic training in Baroda.
In the present lot, painted in 1970, one can discern a seated figure in a yogic pose, likely influenced by the emphasis on specific postures and the shape of the body in Tantric texts. Perhaps a representation of Lord Shiva, the fiery oval form at the upper center could allude to the deity’s all-seeing third eye. This symbol, prominent in Hindu lore, bestows an inward vision and is also capable of burning destruction when focused outward, a simultaneity Santosh captures in this painting. The style of the painting is graphic and bold, and the artist’s lines are unwavering. From these minimal yet precise lines alone, viewers can discern the level of meditation involved in the artist’s creative process.
Santosh’s seminal Neo-Tantric paintings, like the present lot, serve as a counterpoint to the prominence of figuration in the contemporary Indian artistic traditions of his time, and paved a new path for painting that stood uniquely against works of American Abstract Expressionism as well.