Sunil Madhav Sen (1910 - 1979)

Mixed Media on Masonite Board

31.5 x 24.5 Inches

Signed Lower Right

In this work, Sunil Madhav Sen reimagines the figure of the classical dancer, a familiar motif in Indian art. Here, he shapes it through his distinct material and formal language. As Dr. Klaus Fischer observed: “The expression of Eastern mind is not by imitating Ajanta, Ellora and other glories of past, but by adding new and modern artistic forms. Sunil Madhav Sen proves that free art forms of international understanding is modern imaginative art.”

Sen’s figural works draw deeply from India’s sculptural traditions without merely repeating them. This standing female figure, stylised in pose and ornament, recalls the carved reliefs and ritual idols he first saw as a child in Bankura. Rooted in the textures of his upbringing and early memories of clay idol-making, Sen approached figures as built surfaces — more sculpted than painted.

Here, the dancer’s form feels like stone relief: mosaic-like pigments and a textured ground merge with hints of Cubist structure, showing how Sen created a visual language uniquely his own.