Cocks on the Table

India’s first modernist sculptor also made expressionistic paintings filled with the suggestion of movement. This still-life, therefore, is a rare addition in his oeuvre, the cubist treatment lending free reign to his imagination. The artist uses diagonal lines and planes to recreate a table on which two cocks lie ready for plucking, their spread wings, cockscombs and wattles establishing their identity. The sharp triangles and lines allow for a playfulness that the artist exploits to the hilt in composing this still-life, a genre largely alien to his practice.