K.C.S. Paniker

Collection of Lee and Betty Lee Kolker, New York

Lee Kolker graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1931 and later was appointed Honorary Consul General of Gambia from 1973 - 1986, performing ceremonial duties and promoting international relations with the US. He also owned Kolker Chemical of Newark, NJ and Houston, TX. Betty Lee Kolker was a champion equestrian and talented needlepointer who exhibited her work in Washington, D.C. and New York. The couple shared a love of travel and fine art, acquiring the present lot among other works in their collection.

'Panicker’s [sic] role in the art world of Madras was a decisive one. He was the first person who contributed much to bring the South Indian artist out of his crisis of self-confidence.' (K.G. Subramanyam, Chitram Ezhuthu: A Publication on Art & Artists: K.C.S. Paniker Commemoration Volume, Lalit Kala Akademi, Kerala, 1979, p. 11)

A trailblazing painter whose innovative mature style would inspire a generation of Neo-Tantric artists, K.C.S. Paniker took to the arts at a young age, studying at the Madras School of Arts and Crafts and later going on to become the principal of this institution. Deeply involved in the Indian art world, Paniker also served on the Executive Board of the Lalit Kala Akademi and founded the Cholamandal Artists’ Village, a place where artists can develop their creative practice that is still thriving today.

Paniker’s early work mainly consisted of vibrant watercolors, but during the early 1950s, he began to move away from academism and seek inspiration from both European modernism and traditional Indian art. This period of experimentation paved the way for his acclaimed Words and Symbols series, produced between 1963 and 1975. Fusing imagery from astrological, calligraphic and Tantric sources, Paniker pioneered the Neo-Tantric movement along with other artists such as Biren De, Gulam Rasool Santosh and Pakhal Tirumal Reddy.

The present lot consists of two paintings that appear to be products of the transitional moment when Paniker shifted both style and subject matter and incorporated imagery from world religions in his art. While Christ Healing Leper depicts a famous episode in the Bible where Jesus cures a diseased man with his touch, Monk appears to portray a Hindu or Buddhist devotee, as evidenced by the flashes of orange throughout the figure’s robe. Both paintings are rendered in a flat style that reveals the influence of the Ajanta cave paintings, ancient Buddhist mural art that is similarly two-dimensional. These works are also defined by loose and energetic line work, as figures are outlined with confident brush strokes that lend them a sense of vitality.

Produced during a period of painterly reinvention, Christ Healing Leper and Monk are exciting pieces from an artist whose work, despite rarely coming to auction, had an enormous impact on Indian art of the 1960s and beyond.