Untitled (Joueur de Flute)

"In 1949, after Independence, I went to Paris. Suddenly I was confronted with a world which overwhelmed me because before that I never experienced such a fantastic exposure to modern art and for a time this totally confused me. I gradually began to determine what I thought was good, relevant to my work. The rest I discovered as I tried to understand what modern art was all about, concentrating on works of a few artists who I thought represented modernism in most aspects: Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Rouault, Chagall, Kandinsky and Klee." (N. Tuli, The Flamed Mosaic - Indian Contemporary Painting, Abrams, Ahmedabad, 1997, p. 378)
Paritosh Sen's exposure to these European artists observed while living in Paris, provided him with techniques he used to depict traditional Indian subject matter. Sen reworked the recognisable image of Krishna playing the flute using Cubist styles that employ bold, geometric motifs amidst a highly stylised setting.