Important Notice

“I am traditionally trained and perfectly capable of
accomplishing completely realistic work. But my interest
in forms has gone far beyond the dull imitations of subject
matter, which to me is almost unimportant.” — SADANAND BAKRE

Among the founding members of Bombay’s pioneering Progressive Artists’ Group, Sadanand Bakre straddled the multi-dimensional worlds of sculpture and painting. He enrolled at the J J School of... “I am traditionally trained and perfectly capable of
accomplishing completely realistic work. But my interest
in forms has gone far beyond the dull imitations of subject
matter, which to me is almost unimportant.” — SADANAND BAKRE

Among the founding members of Bombay’s pioneering Progressive Artists’ Group, Sadanand Bakre straddled the multi-dimensional worlds of sculpture and painting. He enrolled at the J J School of Art in 1939, where the then principal, Charles Gerrard, encouraged him and his peers to explore and develop their own unique methods of creating. He was further influenced by figures such as Rudy von Leyden, Emmanuel Schlesinger, and Wayne Hartwell who acquainted him with prevailing modernist movements in Europe and America. Having started his career in the 1940s, his art served as “a bridge between the old realist tradition and the free forms that were being ushered in. Even as his work was eclectic and varied, his forays into portraiture, his narrative and abstract sculptures were an attempt at finding a contemporary expressive means.” (“The View from the Wings: Sadanand K Bakre”, Yashodhara Dalmia, The Progressives: The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 187)

Though trained as a sculptor in the academic realist style, Bakre gradually turned towards abstraction like many of his contemporaries. He began taking up painting more frequently after moving to London in 1950. These works became extensions of his modernist sculptural language, with the geometrical forms acquiring two-dimensional shapes and earthy colours associated with a three-dimensional materiality. The present lot reflects the artist’s ability to translate visual harmony and compositional balance across mediums. Thick outlines border totem-like forms set against contrasting, textured backdrops, echoing Gerrard’s advice to him as a student. Recalling these lessons he later remarked, “Gerrard didn’t think of colour harmonies-he used to think of compositions, the balance, the weight. He never said, ‘Make a sharp line.’ He said, ‘Whatever line you make, make it masterly, give it life.’” (Dalmia, p. 189)

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