Though his style and approach remained recognisably Indian, V. Nageshkar often depicted Western themes in his paintings; it's incidental that after going to Paris to study in 1933, he stayed on in Europe and eventually settled in Germany. This Untitled painting depicts a heap of naked bodies—all women from what one can see—piled carelessly, one on top of the other, on a hill. Perhaps it is a mass grave, an impression strengthened by the clotted red soil of the hill, as if stained and overrun by blood. Are these the effluents of the Nazis’ death factory, or the victims of air raids that destroyed so much of Europe, events that Nageshkar was witness to?
published references
Singh, Kishore, ed., Manifestations IX | 75 Artists, 20th Century Indian Art (New Delhi: DAG, 2013), p. 124 Singh, Kishore, ed., The Naked and The Nude: The Body in Indian Modern Art, Edition Two (New Delhi: DAG, 2015), p. 194 Singh, Kishore, ed., India’s French Connection | Indian Artists in France (New Delhi: DAG, 2018), pp. 62-63 Singh, Kishore, ed., Navrasa: The Nine Emotions of Art (New Delhi: DAG, 2020), p. 218
Vishwanath Nageshkar
Untitled
c. 1950s
Oil on canvas
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Vishwanath Nageshkar
Untitled
c. 1950s
Oil on canvas
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