Malabar Belle

Biren De began his career with figuration and this oil on canvas comes from the last years of that phase, which he would soon abandon for abstraction. Malabar Belle is his tribute to the women of the Malabar coast on India’s western seaboard. Painted in profile, in shades of grey rendered largely in flat tones, the belle holds a flower in one hand. This is a trope borrowed from Mughal miniatures where princesses were painted in similar poses. By combining it with European minimalism and cubism, De gives us a charming work