South Asian Indian Contemporary / Modern art mixed media painting by renowned artist M. Sivanesan (In., 1940-2015), signed and dated lower right “M. Sivanesan ‘90”. Sight (image) size alone is 28 3/8 x 18 inches.

Sivanesan was an important painter and his work can be seen in museums such as the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation. The painting offered here is abstract, but depicts the Hindu god Ganesha, aka Ganesh or Vinayaka Chathurthi.

Paintings by this artist can fetch as much as 10K+ USD at auction. That’s at Saffronart auction house in Mumbai. When an exceptional abstract painting of a deity, Durga, by Tyeb Mehta (In., 1925-2009) turned up at Saffornart, it fetched 2.8 million USD. In the art world, the market for these kinds of paintings is smoking hot! Exponential growth will continue. What’s 10K today is 30K in a few years time.

This 1990 painting is currently framed, matted and under glass. Also, the backer board seems to be heavy, smooth Masonite. The framing was done by Golden Picture House, New Delhi. This is a large and heavy piece as it stands.

I haven’t examined this out of the framing, but it’s just too heavy, big, and fragile (due to the glass) to include the framing if shipping this painting.

If the buyer wants to pick up the painting in-person, the framing is included (see last 2 pictures). If the buyer wants the painting packed and shipped to them, no framing such as glass, mating, frame, and heavy backer board will be included, so you’d need to have the painting reframed.

It’s hard to know for sure the artist’s exact methods here, but per a painting I saw on the Mantissa Art Gallery site by Sivanesan from 1986, I think this is perhaps like that example: gouache paint on magazine paper. Also, I saw a 1996 work by him on the Dhoomomal Gallery site that’s crayon on printed paper.

In this work, it looks like the paper was pieced together from rectangular pieces. Also, it may not be all fluid paint that Sivanesan used - he may have also used oil stick or what have you. In a 2008 interview / show review published on the delhievents site, the artist said he was using water based acrylic, oil pastels and oil colors.

When I look at this painting, my thought is that it’s definitely Abstract Expressionism. It’s like Willem de Kooning, but Sivanesan is representing a deity instead of a human female figure. From the 2008 article: “Mood-evoking Paintings… M. Sivanesan feels he is a participant in his own work. “Your work has a mood it ‘speaks’ to you, and you ‘answer’ it,” he says. Ideas come from the work and are injected back into it. He looks at it, it relates to him, he assimilates what he has seen, and returns to it. “Back and forth, back and forth, the painting tells you what to do and you have to listen”.

M. Sivanesan Bio -- Education: 1956 Fine Arts, Madras Government College of Arts & Crafts, Chennai. Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2002 Chawla Art Gallery, New Delhi; 2000 Jain Marunouchi Gallery, New York; 1997 Taj Art Gallery, Mumbai; 1989-93 Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and New York; 1987 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; 1985 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; 1980 Taj Art Gallery, Mumbai; 1979 New York and Washington D.C.sponsored by High Commission of India; 1978 Ottawa, Canada sponsored by High commission of India & Air India; 1977 Los Angeles; 1976 Bangkok; 1971-76 Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi; 1971-76 Sarala's Art Centre, Chennai; 1969 Kodaikanal; 1966,63 Chennai; 1965 Mumbai. Selected Group Exhibitions: 2003 Dhoomimal Art Centre, New Delhi; 1999,82 Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi; 1998 Jain Marunouchi Gallery, New York; 1996 National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai; 1994 Chennai; 1981 Frish Art Gallery, New York; 1968 New York; 1967 Tokyo, Japan; 1966 New Delhi. Honours and Awards: 1962 International Inter Church, New York