SOTHEBY'S TO OFFER BHARTI KHER'S 'THE SKIN SPEAKS A LANGUAGE NOT ITS OWN'

SOTHEBY'S LONDON, ANNOUNCED THAT IT WILL BE OFFERING FOR SALE BHARTI KHER'S CELEBRATED SCULPTURE 'THE SKIN SPEAKS A LANGUAGE NOT ITS OWN', ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC AND MOST TALKED ABOUT WORKS OF ART BY A CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ARTIST AND THE MASTERPIECE OF THE LEADING FEMALE ARTIST OF HER GENERATION. AWE-INSPIRING IN ITS SCALE, DETAIL AND BEAUTY, THE LIFE-SIZE FEMALE INDIAN ELEPHANT, WILL BE OFFERED IN SOTHEBY'S CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING AUCTION ON 28.JUNE. THE WORK APPEARS AT AUCTION FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME SINCE IT WAS CREATED IN 2006 AND IS ESTIMATED AT £700,000-1,000,000. JAMES SEVIER, DIRECTOR AND SPECIALIST, SOTHEBY'S CONTEMPORARY ART DEPARTMENT, SAID: 'THIS IS A WORK WHICH TOOK BHARTI KHER TEN MONTHS TO CREATE, EVERY FOLD AND RECESS OF THE SUNKEN FORM IS METICULOUSLY CONTOURED BY THE INTRICATELY ARRANGED PATTERNS OF THOUSANDS OF BINDIS THAT ORGANICALLY SWARM ACROSS THE BEAST IN A SECOND SKIN. IT IS INDIA'S IDENTITY IN ALL ITS GLORIOUS COMPLEXITIES THAT IS THE HERO OF THIS MASTERPIECE AND THE SCULPTURE REMAINS A BEACON OF INDIA'S AVANT GARDE ART SCENE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21st CENTURY. WE ARE DELIGHTED TO BE OFFERING THIS MASTERPIECE, WHICH IS NOT ONLY AN EXCLUSIVE WORK OF ART IN ITS OWN RIGHT, BUT ALSO AN ICON OF CONTEMPORARY INDIAN CULTURE AND ART.' BROUGHT TO IT KNEES IN A SEEMINGLY UNTENABLE POSITION, SIMULTANEOUSLY PEACEFUL AND PAINFUL, THE SKIN SPEAK A LANGUAGE NOT OF ITS OWN IS A VISION THAT ENGENDERS EXTREME PATHOS FROM THE VIEWER; IS SHE RISING OR IS SHE FALLING, RESTING OR EXPIRING, LIVING OR DYING. KHER COMBINES TWO SYMBOLS OF INDIAN CULTURE, THE BINDI AND THE ELEPHANT,IN A POWERFULLY EMOTIVE SCULPTURE WHICH LEAVES THE VIEWER ASKING WHETHER THIS IS A VISION OF INDIA ON THE RISE OR AN INDIA EXHAUSTED BY ITS OWN RAPID MODERNIZATION. CONFRONTED WITH THIS SCULPTURE LADEN WITH SYMBOLISM, KHER LEAVES IT OPEN TO INTERPRETATION. MADE IN KHER'S STUDIO IN DELHI, THE SKIN SPEAKS A LANGUAGE NOT ITS OWN, ONE OF THREE UNIQUE VARIATIONS PLUS THE ARTIST PROOF, ELOQUENTLY ARTICULATES INDIA'S DILEMMAS.