Lot 553: RIYAS KOMU (B. 1971)

RIYAS KOMU (B. 1971)
A Man Committing Suicide
signed and dated 'riyas komu MARCH-2000' (lower left of center panel); panel one: inscribed, titled, numbered and dated '1'; "A MAN COMMITTING SUICIDE" MARCH-2000 MIXED MEDIA'; panel two: '2'; bearing label 'C/NO.4396 CIMA GALLERY PRIVATE LTD.'; panel three: '3' (on the reverse)
mixed media on canvas; triptych
36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm.) each
108 x 36 in. (274.3 x 36 cm.) overall
Executed in 2000

Property from a Private American Collection

This is one of the first works I produced after leaving the J.J. campus in 1999.... I moved to the end of the western suburbs [of Mumbai] called Dahisar East to a small flat that I shared with a few close friends who were not artists. This work becomes the reflection of the angst one carried immediately after passing out to the larger world; as an artist to me this work illustrates all the dilemmas I was going through that time. I did this work on the terrace of the building, 5th floor and I did it as a drawing of what I could see around. It carries a romantic version of pain and death! Lotus is political metaphor![...].

It's a triptych because I had no space to keep such large work at my space and every day I used to carry it up to work. The medium was the most economical of what I could afford at that point: art powder mixed in enamel and charcoal on it.

I have left behind it in my memory as I have moved on with what I could improve in terms of producing art. I approach my art subjectively in relation with the world we are in. I feel there are bigger issues that engage me nowadays. But this landscape has an angst you can see in the eyes of the portraits I paint. (Artist Statement, Riyas Komu, 2009)