Sajal Roy's paintings, graphics and drawings evoke the oppressive resonances of the seemingly insignificant details of day-to-day life in an Indian metropolis, as they filter through the prism of his emotionally charged imagination. His works are essentially statements against the dehumanization of the vulnerable and weak by a demonic, increasingly materialistic civilization, which engenders compulsions that violate basic human dignity. Material progress, he seems to say, is reactionary if it devalues the individual.

Despite his dramatic images of unbridled lust in ‘Rape’ and ‘On Fire’, there is nothing essentially strident in Roy’s depictions. His mood straddles a multiplicity of emotions, from touching hope in the faces of rustic ‘Migrants’ to the city or infinite tenderness in the faces of a mother or a vulnerable child, to anguish, weariness, fear, boredom, matter-of-fact submission to daily routine, or even an almost spiritual resignation to a diminished existence as in ‘The Flute Player’. Ultimately, each figure projects in its mute self-containment, a strange kind of dignity.

Human emotion spills over into animals in Roy 's ‘Horse' series. The horse symbolizes ‘shakti' or power, and underlines the artist's faith in the fundamental strength of the spirit. Whether it arches its neck and flares its nostrils in ‘Fallen Down’, or nuzzles its mate in ‘Amity', it is the strength and capacity to endure in a horse – or, by implication, in a human being – the artist seems to imply, that defines the value of a life.

The dilemmas of ordinary people – of men on the street – as they tackle their day to day life-situations in an increasingly complex social milieu, assumes extraordinary emotional relevance in Roy’s art. And the power of the artist’s visual language is an extension of this social commitment. The human drama infused into every composition is rhythmically enforced through use of strong vibrant lines, sometimes rough, sometimes fluid, but always intense; and in the powerful distortions, disproportions and stylization of his chunky human and animal forms. His use of color too – stark, muted, somber or vivid – eloquently evokes the mood of the composition.

SajR322 `The Fluteplayer` gouche on paper 22" X 28"   email us for price	SajR320 `Sindoor Khela` gouche on paper 22" X 28"   email us for price	sjr307 `Rape` oil on canvas 40" X 50"   email us for price
SajR405 `Mother& Child` gouche on paper 22" X 22"   email us for price	SajR412 `Earthquake` gouche on paper 24" X 17"   email us for price	SajR414 `Visitors` gouche on paper 22" X 26"   email us for price
Saj5979 `First Step` gouche on paper 22" X 22"   email us for price