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Lot Essay
Apart from cultivating a lifelong interest in the arts, Mr. Kanayo P. Karamchandani was one of the most respected authorities on social forestry in South Asia. As a senior officer with the Indian Forests Department, he was posted in Baroda in the 1960s and 70s. During his time in the city, he frequently visited Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), where his wife taught English literature. It did not take him long to discover the University's ambitious Faculty of Fine Arts, which had been founded a few years ago in 1950.
It was at MSU that the Karamchandanis met several of the artists who had been invited to teach and practice in Baroda, and struck up a particularly close friendship with Sankho Chaudhuri and his wife Ira, N.S. Bendre and his wife Mona, K.G. Subramanyan and his wife Sushila, and Jyoti Bhatt and his wife Jotsnaben. This unusual figurative sculpture by Chaudhuri, a modern portrait of Mona Bendre, is symbolic of the warm relationship and longstanding camaraderie shared by the group. Simultaneously, it represents Chaudhuri's constant drive to experiment and innovate with material, style and technique, and his ability to understand and unite Indian art traditions with global artistic vocabularies.
It was at MSU that the Karamchandanis met several of the artists who had been invited to teach and practice in Baroda, and struck up a particularly close friendship with Sankho Chaudhuri and his wife Ira, N.S. Bendre and his wife Mona, K.G. Subramanyan and his wife Sushila, and Jyoti Bhatt and his wife Jotsnaben. This unusual figurative sculpture by Chaudhuri, a modern portrait of Mona Bendre, is symbolic of the warm relationship and longstanding camaraderie shared by the group. Simultaneously, it represents Chaudhuri's constant drive to experiment and innovate with material, style and technique, and his ability to understand and unite Indian art traditions with global artistic vocabularies.