Paritosh Sen was a painter of reality, his sensibility honed by his immediate surroundings. His keen interest in observing people in a social milieu fueled his interest in the figurative idiom. In this work, Women at a Sacred Tank, Sen has painted a morning scene depicting women praying near a water tank. The colours, the architectural forms, and human figures, are bathed in a strong light. The figures are rounded with a deliberate exaggeration of robustness. The canvas reveals traces of cubism, as also a complex interplay between modernist values and native traditions.
published references
Singh, Kishore, ed., Manifestations 5 | 75 Artists, 20th Century Indian Art (New Delhi: DAG, 2012), p. 159 Singh, Kishore, ed., The Art of Bengal (New Delhi: DAG, 2012), p. 364 Singh, Kishore, ed., A Visual History of Indian Modern Art, Volume IV: Bengal Modernists (New Delhi: DAG, 2015), p. 652 Singh, Kishore, ed., India's Rockefeller Artists: An Indo-US Cultural Saga (New Delhi: DAG, 2017), p. 332
Paritosh Sen
Women at a Sacred Tank
1989
Oil on canvas
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Paritosh Sen
Women at a Sacred Tank
1989
Oil on canvas
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