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Himmat Shah turned to the sculptural medium late in his career, and is best known for his intriguing ‘heads,’ which usually
lack facial features and are instead marked by referential lines and hatches. Born in 1933 in Lothal, Gujarat – an excavation site
of the Indus Valley civilisation, with one of the highest yields of sculptural artefacts – the artist explored the caves and desert
landscapes of the region throughout his childhood, and these early experiences had a deep impact on his work.
A founding member of the short‒lived artists’ collective Group 1890, Shah was interested in changing the direction of modern
Indian art, drawing upon indigenous folk and tribal influences rather than Western styles. In lots 39 and 40, the sculpture is pared
down to an essential or primal state, displaying the precedence of form over narrative – a characteristic common to several
Indian schools of folk art. Experimenting with materiality and texture, the artist challenges formal notions of representation, and
explores concepts such as existence, anonymity and memory.
39
HIMMAT SHAH
(b. 1933)
Untitled
Signed and dated ‘HIMMAT 2006 ‘ and stamped
‘BRONZE AGE LONDON’ (on the base)
2006
Bronze
Height: 12.5 in (31.75 cm)
Width: 7 in (17.78 cm)
Depth: 6 in (15.24 cm)
$ 10,000 ‒ 15,000
Rs 7,40,000 ‒ 11,10,000
This lot is offered at NO RESERVE
Third from a limited edition of five
EXHIBITED
HIMMAT SHAH
, London: Saffronart, 10‒27 May 2007, lot 5
(another from the edition)
PUBLISHED
Gayatri Sinha,
An Unreasoned Act of Being: Sculptures by Himmat
Shah
, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing and Hampshire: Lund
Humphries, 2007, pp. 50‒53 (illustrated)
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