Lot Essay
Incorporating iconic imagery and motifs taken from Indian history, Baiju Parthan attempts to rewrite and contemporise these images by overlaying a deposit of what the artist describes as 'computer code graffiti'. A botanist by training Parthan scrutinises images from the surrounding media dissecting them and then reassembling into a complete painting with a scientific accuracy. He paradoxically utilises mechanical means to create original works of art by composing his paintings on a computer screen. Once a cartoonist with the Times of India Group Publications in Mumbai, Parthan is also a scholar of comparative mythology and philosophy. These elements all greatly inform his work and his paintings possess a cohesive almost narrative quality despite their disparate origins.