Signed lower right “Mother and Child – I”.
Sizes:
Frame: 83.8 × 63.5 cm | 33 × 25 in
Artwork: 73.7 × 55.6 cm | 29 × 21.9 in
In Mother’s Child I, Gurcharan Singh distills a world of quiet intimacy into a single, lyrical composition. His brush, soaked in ochres and earth-tones, unveils more than form — it reveals an emotional cartography. The gentle curve of the child’s body nestled against the mother’s warmth speaks not just of physical closeness, but of ancestral memory, of protection passed down through generations.
Painted with clarity and restraint, the work glows with inner light. The background is washed in golden transparency, evoking the dry heat of Rajasthan or the late afternoon glow of Punjab. It is not portraiture, but presence — a spiritual connection rendered in line and hue. The watercolor technique allows the scene to breathe, like a lullaby sung across time.
Though the figures are specific — individualized, named in title and gesture — they transcend biography. They become mythic, iconic. In Singh’s vision, motherhood is not merely a subject; it is an axis of the human experience, sacred and enduring. The work echoes the visual rhythms of India’s figurative modernism while remaining distinct in its voice: modest, grounded, deeply humane.
This is a painting for those who seek truth in tenderness — where the domestic becomes universal, and the smallest gestures carry the weight of culture, identity, and quiet devotion.
Acquired by the current owner at the auction ’20th & 21st Century Paintings & Works on Paper’ by Potomack Company, Lot 4039.
Good vintage condition with some signs of wear. Framed.
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Indian artist Gurcharan Singh built his career on capturing the raw emotional weight of lives lived in society’s shadow. Inspired by long, solitary walks through the underbelly of urban India—through red-light districts and barrooms—Singh’s canvases became windows into a world of poverty, exploitation, and survival. His paintings often depict prostitutes, pimps, and outcasts, rendered not with judgment, but with empathy and unsparing honesty. These figures, painted in harsh reds, blues, and shadows, reveal the humanity of those usually overlooked.
As his practice matured, Singh moved beyond documentation to symbolic exploration. Juxtaposing human figures with animals, he created visual metaphors that questioned the primal instincts underlying social behavior. His signature works are emotional, immediate, and unsettling—intimate portraits of a “colorful hell” filled with sorrow, vitality, and resilience. Singh’s art remains a haunting meditation on moral decay, societal hypocrisy, and the human condition at its most exposed.
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