Laxman PAI (Inde, 1926-2021)

Femme en buste / Female bust Huile sur isorel / Oil on isorel 61 x 38 cm Signed, located and dated lower center, London, February (19)59 Signed, located and dated lower center, London, February (19)59. Provenance : Estate of Madame X, Paris. Acquired directly from the artist. Born in Goa, Laxman Pai spent his youth yearning for the creative freedom he believed only existed outside his homeland, only to find his artistic voice in the Goan landscape of his youth. In 1951, with his friend and fellow artist Sadanand Bakre, the rebellious young Laxman Pai embarked for Paris. On arrival, they met Francis Newton Souza, Akbar Padamsee and Syed Haider Raza, who were already part of the Parisian art scene. Pai immediately enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, where he studied painting and drawing and experimented with new printing techniques. Before long, the delicate, realistic landscapes of Pai's student years at the Sir J. J. School of Art were transformed into vibrant, playful compositions depicting everyday life in rural Goa, as seen here in Goan Village. "From his new location in Paris, Pai paints Goa obsessively, nostalgic for his homeland and its people, developing techniques that straddle both the terrains of tradition and modernity. "For Pai, painting becomes a window through which to fly away to another world - from Paris to the magical landscape of Goa - its temples and churches, rice paddies, beaches, indigenous tribes of fishermen and Goan kunbes. For Pai, Goa meant the endless rhythm of the sea, grassy palms and the daily life of the local communities, their colorful costumes and ornaments. [Schematic, spontaneous, childlike, naive, excessive, Pai's mythical enchantment with his native land spills over into portable works that circulate between India and Paris and other places where Pai presents his art..." (Roobina Karode, Pai in Paris, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2006, unpaginated). During his ten years in Paris, Pai organized nine solo exhibitions and presented his work in London, Munich, Hanover, Stuttgart and New York.