Page 98 - AstaGuru Masters Legacy April 2024

Lot No. 22

B PRABHA
1933-2001

UNTITLED (MOTHER AND CHILD)
36 x 30.5 in ( 91.4 x 77.4 cm)
Oil on canvas
1983
Signed & Dated: Bottom Left

` 20,00,000 - 30,00,000 | $ 24,390 - 36,585

Published: ‘Artoholics MMXXIII’ catalogue

Provenance: Property from a collection based in
New Delhi. The work was acquired by the present
owner from Sotheby’s.

Although her early works were abstract, she found
a certain kinship with the imagery of rural women,
whose trials and tribulations, daily life and simplicity
she documented through her paintings. She
experimented with several mediums throughout her
career but finally settled on oil paints as her preferred
medium, utilising which she developed a signature
style. Among the myriad themes and subject matters
she explored, the most prominent were landscapes,
still lifes, figurative works and social issues. Most of her
works showcase slender, elongated female figures in
traditional clothing, highlighted with use of a single
dominant colour used in the background. The rural
setting and the pensive gazes of her subjects further
showcase her artistic skills and preoccupations.

Besides the rural women of India, Prabha also delved
into the life of the common man from the working
class. Ranging from fisherfolk to farmers to the daily
wage workers in urban areas, she attempted to
showcase their anxieties and successes through her
visual syntax. Cover of the publication with the work illustrated