Page 114 - Present-Future-September-2023

Lot No. 88

NALINI MALANI
b. 1946
FIRST ROMANCE
54 x 44 in (137.1 x 111.7 cm)
Oil on canvas
1981

` 15,00,000 – 20,00,000 | $ 18,750 - 25,000
Signed & Dated: Verso

Born in 1946 in Karachi, Malani grew
up in Kolkata, where her family had
moved after India’s partition. She
completed her art education at
Mumbai’s Sir J.J. School of Art in 1969
and then moved to Paris on a French
government scholarship. Returning to
India in 1973, she began practising in
Mumbai.
In 1987, Malani orchestrated a
groundbreaking event, “Through — religious conflicts stemming from
the Looking Glass,” marking India’s fundamentalism, the spectre of war,
inaugural female-organised exhibition the plight of women facing violence
for female artists. This landmark and oppression, and the threat of
exhibition garnered noteworthy environmental degradation. Her deft
attention. The 1990s saw her delve juxtaposition of diverse images results
into installation art and innovate with in narratives that defy simplistic
distinctive showcases like “City of categorizations of good versus evil.
Desires,” where she invited the public
to witness her creative process and With rising international recognition,
partake in discussions. Malani has graced numerous solo
and group exhibitions worldwide,
Central to Malani’s artistry are enduring including the prestigious Venice
themes of feminism, ecology, and the Biennale in 2007 and dOCUMENTA
human experience, all masterfully in Kassel in 2012. In 2017, she became
conveyed with an air of effortlessness. the first Indian artist to be showcased
Through the interplay of translucent at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. The
and overlapping images, skilful retrospective, titled “Nalini Malani: The
manipulation of shadows, and the Rebellion of the Dead,” emerged from
construction of composite forms, she a collaboration between the Centre
fashions a visual language that aptly Pompidou and Castello di Rivoli.
encapsulates the complexity of her This extensive travelling exhibition
chosen subjects. spanned five decades of Malani’s
trailblazing career.
While modern techniques, such as
installations, form the basis of Malani’s Her artistic legacy finds a place within
artistic approach, her works exude a the esteemed collections of several
dreamy quality and a familiar warmth, international institutions, including the
owing to her deep-rooted connection Museum of Modern Art in New York,
to traditional folk arts like glass the Asia Society Museum in New York,
painting, shadow play, kaleidoscope the British Museum in London, the
lantern, and Kalighat paintings with Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan,
divine motifs. At its core, her art and the Peabody Essex Museum in
responds to pressing global issues Salem, USA.