.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
One of India’s most distinguished modern sculptors, Meera Mukherjee emerged onto the Indian art scene at a time that was transitional, full of change and eclecticism. However, her background and training prepared her well for this milieu. Born in Calcutta in 1923, the artist first joined the Indian Society of Oriental Art in her hometown, and then moved to Delhi Polytechnic, from which she graduated with a diploma in painting, graphic art and sculpture in 1951. She went on to work with the Indonesian modern artist Affandi, who was a visiting scholar at Santiniketan, and then, after her first solo exhibition in 1952, won a fellowship and moved to Munich to study at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste for three years.
Exposed to both academic and non-realist modes of expression, as well as Indian and Western training, Mukherjee began to draw freely from both tradition and modernity in her work. She imbued her sculptures with a lyricism that transformed her subjects from the familiar and ordinary to the magical. This sensitivity, shaped by her respect and compassion for the common man and the everyday, stemmed from her conviction that art existed in every aspect of daily life, waiting to be discovered.
Deeply influenced by the traditional Dhokra ‘lost-wax’ or cire perdue method of metal casting that was used by tribal communities from Bastar in Madhya Pradesh, which she studied and documented as a Senior Fellow of the Anthropological Society of India, Mukherjee perfected a technique for working with bronze that adapted this traditional method to contemporary subjects and themes. Her process “incorporates modelling, stringing and rolling of wax on an image core, which is followed by covering it by a clay mould, baking, and pouring of molten metal [...] Her works represent the moods of men and women in contemporary society in their various social and economic environments” (J.J. Nazary, 'Some New Trends in Indian Sculpture', Marg, Vol. 31, No. 2, March 1978, p. 83). The detailed bronze finish of her works consequently appears organic and malleable, imbuing each of her sculptures with lyricism and rhythm as they capture dynamic moments in time.
Recalling her time in Bastar, Mukherjee wrote, “I served a period of apprenticeship under the Bastar artisans. Working with these superb craftsmen, I could not suppress a thrill, to feel that the great Tanjore Bronzes were made by fingers such as theirs, and I was in their company. As I saw their dedicated effort with which they built holy images which men will revere and worship, I asked myself, can we artists, modern artists, not approach the work that we do in the same spirit? What if we, building the figure, not of a god but of more earthly things, not feel in such creation a similar spiritual unfolding?” (Artist statement, G. Lechner, ‘Notes from Germany’, Meera Mukherjee: Purity of Vision, Ahmedabad, 2018, p. 69).
In lot 48, Untitled (Wheel Builders), the artist recreates a local workshop scene in her characteristic idiom. Here, a group of seated and standing figures are engaged in the process of shaping wood straps around a set of metal spokes to produce largescale wheels, most likely for tangas or horse-drawn carts. As two wheels are being put together under the watch of a dhoti-clad supervisor, a third finished wheel is carried towards the viewer on the head of another worker. Mukherjee’s eye for detail is evident in this sculpture, particularly in her representation of the workshop floor, littered with stray materials that are used in this everyday trade. Also evident in this visually arresting sculpture is the fact that “Labour and movement lie at the heart of [Mukherjee’s] oeuvre: whether in works that represent the motion of work, quotidian life, or those that capture struggle” (S. Sunderason, ‘Sculpture of Undulating Lives, Meera Mukherjee’s Arts of Motion’, Aziatische Kunst, Vol. 50, no. 2, Amsterdam, 2020, p. 59).
Lot 49, Untitled (The Flood), showcases a different aspect of Mukherjee’s meticulous practice. A keen observer of nature, and specifically the various types of interactions humans have with it, here the artist magically transforms heavy bronze into a delicately stretched base with several small yet detailed renderings of figures, waves and boats emerging from it, such that they appear to be bobbing on the surface of choppy flood waters that appear to have engulfed a village. Figures perch on rooftops seeking refuge from the rising water. Rather than emphasizing verticality, as in Wheel Builders, here Mukherjee focuses on the surface, drawing viewers in close to examine each element, from the churning waters and floating driftwood to the spray of each wave as it breaks against the shore. Complementing her sculptures of boatmen engaged in various activities including fishing and mending their nets, the present lot emphasizes the power of the waters that sustain them, at most times generous but at others, unpredictable and destructive. Perhaps related to her series of works on storms and the devastating floods of 1978, this deceptively simple sculpture offers viewers a powerful reminder of both the beauty and fury of nature.
“Meera’s world in bronze is full of movement. The viewers’ eyes do not only follow the flowing contours of the figures but also the patterns, lineatures and ornamentations animating the surfaces of her bronze sculptures. None of these figures is profane in the Western sense as all of them seem to be imbibed with something of the divine and to pulsate with flowing forces and energies” (C. Segieth, Remembering Meera Mukherjee, exhibition catalogue, Bernried, 2012, p. 8).
Exposed to both academic and non-realist modes of expression, as well as Indian and Western training, Mukherjee began to draw freely from both tradition and modernity in her work. She imbued her sculptures with a lyricism that transformed her subjects from the familiar and ordinary to the magical. This sensitivity, shaped by her respect and compassion for the common man and the everyday, stemmed from her conviction that art existed in every aspect of daily life, waiting to be discovered.
Deeply influenced by the traditional Dhokra ‘lost-wax’ or cire perdue method of metal casting that was used by tribal communities from Bastar in Madhya Pradesh, which she studied and documented as a Senior Fellow of the Anthropological Society of India, Mukherjee perfected a technique for working with bronze that adapted this traditional method to contemporary subjects and themes. Her process “incorporates modelling, stringing and rolling of wax on an image core, which is followed by covering it by a clay mould, baking, and pouring of molten metal [...] Her works represent the moods of men and women in contemporary society in their various social and economic environments” (J.J. Nazary, 'Some New Trends in Indian Sculpture', Marg, Vol. 31, No. 2, March 1978, p. 83). The detailed bronze finish of her works consequently appears organic and malleable, imbuing each of her sculptures with lyricism and rhythm as they capture dynamic moments in time.
Recalling her time in Bastar, Mukherjee wrote, “I served a period of apprenticeship under the Bastar artisans. Working with these superb craftsmen, I could not suppress a thrill, to feel that the great Tanjore Bronzes were made by fingers such as theirs, and I was in their company. As I saw their dedicated effort with which they built holy images which men will revere and worship, I asked myself, can we artists, modern artists, not approach the work that we do in the same spirit? What if we, building the figure, not of a god but of more earthly things, not feel in such creation a similar spiritual unfolding?” (Artist statement, G. Lechner, ‘Notes from Germany’, Meera Mukherjee: Purity of Vision, Ahmedabad, 2018, p. 69).
In lot 48, Untitled (Wheel Builders), the artist recreates a local workshop scene in her characteristic idiom. Here, a group of seated and standing figures are engaged in the process of shaping wood straps around a set of metal spokes to produce largescale wheels, most likely for tangas or horse-drawn carts. As two wheels are being put together under the watch of a dhoti-clad supervisor, a third finished wheel is carried towards the viewer on the head of another worker. Mukherjee’s eye for detail is evident in this sculpture, particularly in her representation of the workshop floor, littered with stray materials that are used in this everyday trade. Also evident in this visually arresting sculpture is the fact that “Labour and movement lie at the heart of [Mukherjee’s] oeuvre: whether in works that represent the motion of work, quotidian life, or those that capture struggle” (S. Sunderason, ‘Sculpture of Undulating Lives, Meera Mukherjee’s Arts of Motion’, Aziatische Kunst, Vol. 50, no. 2, Amsterdam, 2020, p. 59).
Lot 49, Untitled (The Flood), showcases a different aspect of Mukherjee’s meticulous practice. A keen observer of nature, and specifically the various types of interactions humans have with it, here the artist magically transforms heavy bronze into a delicately stretched base with several small yet detailed renderings of figures, waves and boats emerging from it, such that they appear to be bobbing on the surface of choppy flood waters that appear to have engulfed a village. Figures perch on rooftops seeking refuge from the rising water. Rather than emphasizing verticality, as in Wheel Builders, here Mukherjee focuses on the surface, drawing viewers in close to examine each element, from the churning waters and floating driftwood to the spray of each wave as it breaks against the shore. Complementing her sculptures of boatmen engaged in various activities including fishing and mending their nets, the present lot emphasizes the power of the waters that sustain them, at most times generous but at others, unpredictable and destructive. Perhaps related to her series of works on storms and the devastating floods of 1978, this deceptively simple sculpture offers viewers a powerful reminder of both the beauty and fury of nature.
“Meera’s world in bronze is full of movement. The viewers’ eyes do not only follow the flowing contours of the figures but also the patterns, lineatures and ornamentations animating the surfaces of her bronze sculptures. None of these figures is profane in the Western sense as all of them seem to be imbibed with something of the divine and to pulsate with flowing forces and energies” (C. Segieth, Remembering Meera Mukherjee, exhibition catalogue, Bernried, 2012, p. 8).