Mohan Samant1924 - 2004Devils in HeavenMixed media on canvasSigned and dated 'SAMANT / 78' on reverseBearing distressed label on reverse: 'CAT.#8868 / "Devils in Heaven" / Mohan Samant / 68" x 92"'68 ⅝ x 92 ⅛ in. (174.3 x 234 cm.)Executed in 1978Private Collection, New Jersey Acquired from the above'Unlike many other artists of his generation in India, Mohan Samant did not believe the medium to be sacrosanct. Mastery over the medium meant, to him, the power to cross, graft, and reconfigure it in such a way that an artwork could transcend its formal limitations while extending its conceptual premises.' (R. Hoskote, Mohan Samant Paintings, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 2013, p. 16)Expansion and experimentation are the foundations of Samant’s oeuvre. Throughout the 60s, while Samant lived in New York, his work examined the properties of oil, abstract forms and texture. Using paint, mixed media, sand and glue, Samant explored non-figuration, guided by the freedom and spirit of the city and his personal music practice. Lot 43 epitomizes several of these characteristics and represents the culmination of his time as a Rockefeller Fellow in New York.The present lot is indicative of the next period of Samant’s work, where his iconography and techniques became more complex and were imbued with a sense of the sublime. Permanently relocating to New York in the late 60s, his work in the following decade was defined by elements of figurative play, especially through the use of bright colors and mixed media. In the current work, the large scale format and subject matter lend a certain drama to the composition. The dreamlike hunting scene is a contemporary rendering of the imagery found in prehistoric cave paintings and Mughal miniature motifs, art forms known to have profoundly influenced the artist. The mythical characters, including the centaur, winged creature and whimsical figures, exude a celestial and exalted presence in the scene. The viewer witnesses the artist’s creativity and myth-making leaping off the canvas.Samant received many accolades during his lifetime. In the 1960s, he was voted by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best painters in the world. Towards the end of his life, he was made a recipient of the Asian American Heritage Award for lifetime achievement in the arts. His work is in public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Asia Society (New York), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC), the Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh), the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts) and the National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi), among others.‘Mohan Samant’s art is colors, shapes, lines, and textures combined to create a sophisticated composition where reality and fantasy play that mysterious game called Life, called Dream. Samant’s art is not incomprehensible; we just have to look at it, individualize its language, learn its alphabet.’ (B. Bertieri, ‘Notes on Mohan’s Art,’ Mohan Samant: Paintings, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 2013, p. 27)