SATISH GUJRAL | Untitled (Ganesha)

Acquired directly from the artist circa 1976 by Joseph W. Reed, U. S. A.
Acquired from the Estate of Joseph W. Reed by the current owner

G. Sinha, S. Datta, G. Bhatia, 'Metal: 1970-1980', Satish Gujral: An Artography, ed. D. Chaudhuri, Roli Books, New Delhi, 2006, p. 78 (another version)

There is tarnishing of the metal, including paint losses in various places. There are also small spots of rust and pitting across the shiny surfaces. The top section of the sculpture may need stabilising. The sculpture has been rewired and fitted for electricity by a professional restorer. Overall, the work is in good condition, commensurate with age, as viewed.
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Satish Gujral’s style defies classification. With marked elements of Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, D. A. Siqueiros, this dynamic, and almost apocalyptic light installation appears to have sprung from a passionate and burning heart. It is perhaps one of the most important examples of Gujral’s sculpture today. This work retains the special Indian qualities amidst foreign elements. Painter, sculptor, muralist and architect, Gujral has been described as a true 'renaissance artist' whose work marks a lifelong journey of experimentation within a range of media and forms of expression. This metal sculpture from the early seventies relates closely to two published and exhibited works. The first 'Ganesha' from 1975 was exhibited in Contemporary Indian Art, An Exhibition of the Festival India at The Royal Academy of Art, London, 1982; and the other from a private collection in Delhi is published in Satish Gujral, An Artography, New Delhi 2006.

'Gujral's departure from representational painting started with beautiful collages and murals. Without knowing it himself, he was moving inexorably towards the tantric phenomenology. The meeting point came with is metal and wood constructions. The ancient Hindu yantras, designs that were made as aids to meditations, found their apotheosis in Satish Gujral's latest work... The Indian artist inherits a whole system of thought which basically is concerned with epistemology, the science of knowledge, which he then tries hard to translate into his own visual medium. Satish Gujral has totally succeeded. The fusion of tantric thought into visuals of 20th-century industrial society is nearly complete in Gujral's case...' ('Shanta Serbjeet Singh, Span, July 1975', Satish Gujral, An Artography, New Delhi, 2006, p. 77).