Untitled, Figurative

Medium:Acrylic
Height:11 inch / 27.9 cm
Width:10 inch / 25.4 cm
Dimension:W: 25.4 cm × H: 27.9 cm

Expressive acrylic portrait on paper featuring a contemplative human face in bold yellow and black tones; a powerful modern artwork emphasizing emotional depth, texture, and raw expression.

Description

Rabin Mondal | Untitled | Acrylic on Paper | 11 x 10 inches

This evocative acrylic-on-paper work presents a bold, frontal human face constructed through vigorous, gestural brushstrokes and a striking contrast of yellow and deep black tones. The face appears contemplative, with closed or downcast eyes and firmly structured features that convey inner stillness amid expressive intensity. The layered application of paint creates a tactile surface, where rough textures and overlapping strokes lend the image a sense of emotional weight and immediacy. The use of yellow illuminates the central planes of the face, suggesting an inner light or spiritual presence, while the surrounding dark tones frame and ground the composition. Stripped of background detail, the portrait becomes timeless and archetypal, focusing entirely on psychological depth and human resilience.

Rabin Mondal was inspired by primitive and tribal art, its potent simplifications and raw energy.
The son of a mechanical draughtsman, Rabin Mondal took to drawing and painting at the age of twelve when he injured his knee and was confined to bed.
The Bengal famine of 1943 and the Calcutta communal riots of 1946 deeply impacted his psyche; he joined the Communist Party and became an activist. Mondal’s final refuge was art as the ultimate weapon of protest.
Mondal’s figuration derived from a growing abhorrence towards mankind’s moral decay in all spheres of life. The cubo-futuristic angularities of forms within the pictorial space arranged around them evolved into a series of paintings depicting highly distinct human figures that struggled to live a hero’s life in a mocking but tragic world.
Mondal’s images have a deeply felt iconic appearance. The series Queen, King, Man represent figures that are static, totemic, tragicomic, ruthlessly shattered and ruined. Having subverted the classical canons of harmony and beauty, Mondal evolved a vocabulary to express his anguish and rage towards decadence in society. The expressionistic use of splattered colours and the bold application of black are part of that vocabulary.
Beginning his career as an art teacher, with a stint as an art director in films, he was a founder member of Calcutta Painters in 1964, and from 1979-83 a general council member of Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. He passed away in Kolkata on 2 July 2019.

Shipment DetailsThis artwork will be shipped unframed, either in roll form or flat, depending on its requirements—at no additional cost.

If you’d prefer the artwork to arrive ready to hang, please get in touch with us to arrange framing and shipping at applicable charges.

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