Freedom of speech is not a privilege we can take for granted—this seems to be the underlying thought in this work by Navjot. It belongs to a series of drawings from the late 1970s as part of her response to the Emergency that the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed (1975-77), when people witnessed a severe curtailing of freedom. She depicts a man bound tightly, the coils erasing the features of his face, yet his exaggeratedly large hands hold the face of another man whose mouth is open in a scream. Through this powerful image of a gagged man silencing another, the artist alludes to the post-Emergency period.
published references
Singh, Kishore, ed., Manifestations VIII: 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art (New Delhi: DAG, 2012), p. 138 Singh, Kishore, ed., A Visual History of Indian Modern Art, Volume VII: Alternate Sensibilities (New Delhi: DAG, 2015), p. 1191 Singh, Kishore, ed. Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art: Edition II (New Delhi: DAG, 2017), p. 337 Singh, Kishore, ed., Ways of Seeing: Women Artists | Women as Muse (New Delhi: DAG, 2021), p. 129 A Place in the Sun: Women Artists from 20th Century India (New Delhi: DAG, 2021), p. 126
Navjot
Untitled (Squeezed II)
1978
Ink on paper
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Navjot
Untitled (Squeezed II)
1978
Ink on paper
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