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Lot Essay
The Keehn Collection presented here follows and concludes the selection we had the privilege of presenting in September 2011. The success met with the previous group speaks of the importance not least of the works on offer but also of the recognition of the contribution of Tom and Martha Keehn to the most formative stages of what we know today as Modern India art.
Spread over the eight years the family spent in India and their life-long love affair with the country and its people, the Keehns collected with passion. The selection here represents MF Husain's mastery as a portrait painter and his continuous devotion to protraying friends that mattered the most to him; Ram Kumar's Banares ghat - perhaps one of the earliest renditions where one can still see the landscape with buildings as seen in his earlier figurative works - a cusp between the artist's figurative and later abstract paintings. Very rare lithographs of Tyeb Mehta, Vasudeo Gaitonde and a painting of a cat with its kitten by Jamini Roy stand out like jewels in the collection.
Within this selection one's attention is immediately drawn to the powerful, bold and expressionistic Keehn family portrait. A contemplative and yet assertive gaze of Tom and Martha draws the viewer into the painting while the playful assemblage of the children sets an easy tone to the overall composition. Tracing the history of portraiture, humans have been portrayed as omens and sacred fetishes, divine beings and historical personages, passionate individuals and part of a mass consciousness, subjects of experimentation and icons of self. Portraiture is the art that remembers a person at their most manifest moment, and relates their story to the world. Husain painted portraits of his closest friends and their family, capturing the most poignant moment in time, drawing all the family members together for life.
Spread over the eight years the family spent in India and their life-long love affair with the country and its people, the Keehns collected with passion. The selection here represents MF Husain's mastery as a portrait painter and his continuous devotion to protraying friends that mattered the most to him; Ram Kumar's Banares ghat - perhaps one of the earliest renditions where one can still see the landscape with buildings as seen in his earlier figurative works - a cusp between the artist's figurative and later abstract paintings. Very rare lithographs of Tyeb Mehta, Vasudeo Gaitonde and a painting of a cat with its kitten by Jamini Roy stand out like jewels in the collection.
Within this selection one's attention is immediately drawn to the powerful, bold and expressionistic Keehn family portrait. A contemplative and yet assertive gaze of Tom and Martha draws the viewer into the painting while the playful assemblage of the children sets an easy tone to the overall composition. Tracing the history of portraiture, humans have been portrayed as omens and sacred fetishes, divine beings and historical personages, passionate individuals and part of a mass consciousness, subjects of experimentation and icons of self. Portraiture is the art that remembers a person at their most manifest moment, and relates their story to the world. Husain painted portraits of his closest friends and their family, capturing the most poignant moment in time, drawing all the family members together for life.