Acquired from Gallery Maskara

London, Saatchi Gallery, The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, 29 January - 8 May 2010

Mark Holborn ed., The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, Jonathan Cape, London, 2009, p. 115 illus

There is minor rubbing on the lower right and upper left corners on the side of the painting, not visible from the front. This work is in good condition, as viewed.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In his work Venkanna re-appropriates the paintings of the famous French surrealist Henri Rousseau.  Venkanna takes elements from Rousseau’s fantastical landscapes, re-addressing the subjects and placing them within a contemporary context.

In Two Moon Venkanna draws on Henri Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy of 1897. The background imitates Rousseau’s lone 🅺mandolin player “overcome by fatigue in a deep sleep, a lion chances to pass by, picks up her scent yet does not devour her. There is a moonlight effect, very poetic. The scene is set in a co𒊎mpletely arid desert. The gypsy is dressed in oriental costume.” (Henri Rousseau,//www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80172). In the foreground Venkanna repeats the subject but this time he portrays the skeletal remains of the gypsy, an erect phallus protruding from the oriental costume, as the lion stands over her. This rather macabre re-interpretation of Rousseau’s naïve scene not only highlights the tragedy of death but raises contemporary concerns of warfare and globalisation.