Cage Birds

J. Sultan Ali brought a refreshing perspective to Indian modern art by blending mythic as well as tribal imagery in his practice in a nod to folk forms and native memory. Cage Birds was executed when he was living in New Delhi, working with the Lalit Kala Akademi. It is an exquisitely Indian modernist work with the artist creating a layered brown landscape of semi-arid topography that could be anywhere in western or central India. The village folk carry birds in a cage, possibly to sell at the local haat or market.