G. RAVINDER REDDY | Untitled (Head of a Woman)

Kanoria Centre for Art, Ahmedabad Acquired form the above circa 1990s

The surface of the sculpture is discoloured, largely due to marks created during the firing process and is for the most part inherent. Light dirt has accumulated, particularly in the minor crevices and horizontal surfaces. A small crack in the right, near the woman's hair has been repaired by a professional conservator. Small losses to the medium are visible underneath due to contact with the plinth. The condition of this sculpture is stable and commensurate with age.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This important early terra sigillata figural sculpture by Reddy is compositionally similar to a terracotta head exhibited in A Critical Difference: Contemporary Art from India, Camden Art Center, London 1993 and sold through these rooms 18 September 2008, lot 127. Reddy is 'A contemporary artist who has consistently retained his links with classical forms as well as with pop and folk art'... his 'work is both distinctive and original... his sensuous figures evoke the lustrous present, the iconic gaze sends signals into the heraldic and the eternal, interfacing the everyday with the classical, and the fleeting present with the infinite. The multiple layering of his work has created sub-texts, which make it dense but also palpable. Located in the port town of Vishakapatnam, Reddy draws from its daily life and archives classical forms to create his distinctive sculptures.' (Y. Dalmia, Journeys, Vol.2, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011, pp. 117-118)

In the artist's own words "I would say that the Indian aspect in my work is predominantly a feeling for the form... If you refer to our Indian temple sculptures, or Buddhist or Amravati sculptures, they are full of form and life. So while I wanted to retain this life and form, I also wanted to represent contemporary life and form. Therefore, by using the same aesthetics and modelling technique, I tried to infuse the present-day form, which visually you see in the streets or in the market." (ibid. p. 118)

"I am not doing a particular person's portrait... I am taking the surroundings or a group of people into my mind, and I am doing a portrait of that group, of that society, that place... I am making a kind of icon, which is gazing into eternity." (ibid. pp. 121-122)