Untitled

As she aged, so did Anupam Sud’s female figures, rendered anonymous in the absence of markers to help locate them to a particular geography or time. The woman’s sagging body still holds its temptations—witness the apple she holds in the palm of one hand—while the other, in a similar gesture, seems to mock the validation of lust with a garland of flowers suspended from a string from one finger. The yellow flowers might be an offering of love, or veneration of the sacred, or even a symbol for the departed. The intimate setting of a domestic interior—imagined by the curtains and sofa, even though she appears to perch on a stool—are a place where a woman is both temptress and goddess, and in a patriarchal society the lines between the two constantly collide, robbing her of agency. Sud points to the dichotomy of placing women on a pedestal, only to vilify them, in this rare departure from printmaking.