Untitled

It is only partly true that S. K. Bakre was the lone sculptor among the founder members of the Progressive Artists’ Group since he was also an exceptional painter. His paintings, however, stood out for their sculptural quality and a suggestion of three-dimensionality. It is borne out by this Untitled oil, made during his London years where he would live for nearly four decades. The use of heavy lines and expressive spiky forms with apparent metallic rigidity make it a typical work from his oeuvre of the 1960s. The surreal, otherworldly quality of the forms hints at elements that may be architectural scientific, or even of the natural world, leaving their interpretation to the viewer’s discretion.