Lot 255: JITISH KALLAT

JITISH KALLAT B.1974 TRAUMANAMA (THE CRY OF THE GLAND) signed twice, titled and dated 2008 twice mixed media on Indian handmade paper 133 by 94cm.; 40 1/2 by 37in.

Donated by the artist

"'Traumanama (The Cry of the Gland)' is a portfolio of works on paper that opens up the body almost like Rorschach inkblots, the stretched muscles and dripping fluids metaphorically become receptacles of urban trauma.

In several of my large scale paintings, the city is rendered as a space of collision and chaos; within 'Traumanama' an isolated body mutates under the incessant traumas of urban living. The title is inspired by the grand Mughal miniature portfolios such as 'Razmnama (the Art of War)' or the 'Hamzanama (the Mythical Adventures of Amir Hamza)'; in a parallel vein 'Traumanama' becomes an imaginary pictorial recital about the symbolic figure of a 'traumapolitan'; the inhabitant of an imagined 'traumapolis', a space of unending strife and conflict."

Jitish Kallat