This work displays the self-taught artist Hemanta Misra’s brief engagement with cubism, from a period when he had eschewed academic realism and was progressing towards surrealism, the genre that would eventually provide him his artistic mojo. Inspired by the cubist vocabulary, the work here depicts an owl on guard, perched on what looks like a boundary wall made of brick. A tendril curls alongside while a full moon is discernible in the background. The intrinsic beauty of this work lies in the deftness with which the artist marries cubist elements with those from landscape art.
Hemanta Misra
On Guard
1959
Oil on plywood
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Hemanta Misra
On Guard
1959
Oil on plywood
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