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Provenance: New Art World

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Exhibited: Initial Access, Wolverhampton, Passage to India, March-August 2008

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Notes: Painted in vivid primary colors with lustrous glossy surfaces and an elaborate coiffure adorned with flowers, Ravinder Reddy's iconic head exudes a tactile, sensual quality. The blue, red and yellow tones – a palette lifted from the rich tradition of Indian miniature painting – exacerbates the pronounced curves and rhythmic interplay between the convex and concave surfaces of this monumental sculpture.

The gargantuan face of the woman, with her painted red lips, kohl-rimmed eyes and flower-strewn hair accoutrements reminiscent of Kashmiri embroidery projects a raw, magnetic appeal, transfixing and drawing the gaze of the viewer, while her open and dispassionate gaze creates an impersonal space around her.

Reddy's monumental heads take their cue from the spectacular forms of classical Indian sculpture, but their iconography is firmly rooted in the setting of contemporary India. "The figures walk straight out of their urban settings, on which Reddy imposes formal qualities, particularly of ancient yakshis (female fertility figures) from Mathura and Bharhut. Like the Bharhut figures, these are picked out in a bold, rhythmic silhouette. Like the Mathura figures, they are modeled to a degree of fullness, expressing frank sexuality not only in flesh but also in ornament ... Whereas the women in ancient Indian sculpture exude an ecstasy of life, the yakshis of our era reveal an excess of indulgence with color-metaphors provided by their lipstick and garish accoutrements." (ArtIndia, vol. II, issue II, 1996, p. 81)