Lot 31
LAXMAN PAI
B. India, 1926
Lotus Flower, June 1973
Signed and dated “Laxman Pai 73” on lower right
Pen and ink on paper mounted on card
56 x 38 cm
Provenance Private Collection, Singapore
RM 3,000 – RM 7,000
Born in January, 1926 in Margao, Goa, India, Laxman Pai received his earliest art education in India’s Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai. The artist has admitted to having a deep and intense adoration for natural beauty, as this artwork suggests. While Pai usually paints with bright and bold colours, this pen and ink work is in monochrome, drawing greater focus to the image depicted. At first glance, one might notice the flower petals at the top forming the head, before seeing the leaves making the arms and the body leading down to the legs and feet of a human. Nature in all her glory and human characters have always been the subject of Pai’s artwork, and this piece is where he continues to explore the relationship between humans and their environments.