Page 77 - AstaGuru Modern Odyssey

Lot No. 54

ANJOLIE ELA MENON
b.1940

UNTITLED
48 x 36 in (122 x 91 cm)
Oil on canvas
Signed: Top Right

` 30,00,000 - 40,00,000 | $ 36,585 - 48,780

Exhibited: ‘Anjolie: Inner Vision : A selection of
Works from 1956 – 2022’ at www.theartstrust.com,
22nd May, 2023 (online).

Published: ‘Anjolie: Inner Vision: A Selection of
Works from 1956-2022 ’ by The Arts Trust, 2023,
pg.198.

Provenance: Property from a collection based in
New Delhi.

With a career spanning for more than six decades
and multiple genres, Anjolie Ela Menon, born in 1940,
took up art at a young age. By the time she was
fifteen, she had already sold her first few paintings,
and held her debut solo exhibition when she was
eighteen. Having displayed an exceptional artistic
calibre, she enrolled at J J School of Art in Bombay.
However, she found it to be academically stifling
and obtained a French Government scholarship to
study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1959.

Her studies in Europe exposed her to the techniques
of medieval Christian iconography, particularly
Byzantine art. It was during this period that she
began to experiment with oil on masonite, and
created many important works.
Cover of the publication with the artwork illustrated.
Her early works reflect the distinctive features
of early Christian art with a specific focus on the
female nude. A dynamic relationship between
eroticism and melancholy began to emerge in her
work as it evolved. Having been inspired by the likes
of Vincent Van Gogh, Amedeo Modigliani, Amrita
Sher-Gil and M F Husain, she constantly works
to re-invent herself as an artist and disdains the
limitations of labels and categorisation. Her work
bears testament to her quest for growth and her
innate nature to defy and extend herself beyond the
boundaries of convention.