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Lot Essay
“I paint as I like. It is a compelling passion with me to keep alive and I cannot help painting or sculpting. I am traditionally trained and perfectly capable of accomplishing completely realistic work. But my interest in forms has gone far beyond the dull imitation of subject matter, which to me is almost unimportant” (Artist statement, ‘All Art Is Either Good or Bad’, Free Press Bulletin, 24 March 1965).
Sadanand Bakre was born in Vadodara in 1920, and later moved to Bombay to join the sculpture department at the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1939. One of the founding members of the Bombay based Progressive Artists Group, Bakre was renowned for his eclectic forms that transgressed disciplinary boundaries, effortlessly moving between mediums of printmaking, sculpture and painting.
In 1950, Bakre moved to the United Kingdom, where he held numerous jobs including that of a hospital porter. Sustaining his artistic practice at the same time, he was exposed to new possibilities of art making, given easy access to painting materials, and presented with a number of opportunities to innovate with his visual style. Of all the art he encountered in England, it was the work of the Vorticists, a London-based group of modernists, with whom Bakre felt a direct affinity. The group itself was short lived, but their development of harsh, precise and mechanist forms that reflected the new industrial age, had a long-lasting impact on Bakre’s oeuvre.
Inspired by the style of Vorticism, Bakre’s works from his time in London are characterized by their taught, angular forms with hard defined lines, on the verge of complete abstraction. Additionally, his training as a sculptor translated to his painting practice, particularly through his rendering of landscapes and architectural structures, such as this depiction of Tower Bridge in London. The jagged, rhythmic lines and sharp edges of his painted forms represent the vigor and energy of modern life in the city. Speaking of his fascination with sharp, geometric structures, he says, “I saw everything mathematically. Everything depended on three parts not four, so it became a spike. Originally it was a tricone (triangle) and then it went on to other things. The number three struck me so when I painted another one it did not give me satisfaction. I don’t know why. It was a geometrical, mathematical phase. I felt the need to do this from some unknown experience of balance” (Artist statement, ‘The View from the Wings: Sadanand K. Bakre’, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001, p. 194).
Sadanand Bakre was born in Vadodara in 1920, and later moved to Bombay to join the sculpture department at the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1939. One of the founding members of the Bombay based Progressive Artists Group, Bakre was renowned for his eclectic forms that transgressed disciplinary boundaries, effortlessly moving between mediums of printmaking, sculpture and painting.
In 1950, Bakre moved to the United Kingdom, where he held numerous jobs including that of a hospital porter. Sustaining his artistic practice at the same time, he was exposed to new possibilities of art making, given easy access to painting materials, and presented with a number of opportunities to innovate with his visual style. Of all the art he encountered in England, it was the work of the Vorticists, a London-based group of modernists, with whom Bakre felt a direct affinity. The group itself was short lived, but their development of harsh, precise and mechanist forms that reflected the new industrial age, had a long-lasting impact on Bakre’s oeuvre.
Inspired by the style of Vorticism, Bakre’s works from his time in London are characterized by their taught, angular forms with hard defined lines, on the verge of complete abstraction. Additionally, his training as a sculptor translated to his painting practice, particularly through his rendering of landscapes and architectural structures, such as this depiction of Tower Bridge in London. The jagged, rhythmic lines and sharp edges of his painted forms represent the vigor and energy of modern life in the city. Speaking of his fascination with sharp, geometric structures, he says, “I saw everything mathematically. Everything depended on three parts not four, so it became a spike. Originally it was a tricone (triangle) and then it went on to other things. The number three struck me so when I painted another one it did not give me satisfaction. I don’t know why. It was a geometrical, mathematical phase. I felt the need to do this from some unknown experience of balance” (Artist statement, ‘The View from the Wings: Sadanand K. Bakre’, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001, p. 194).