Kalki Confronted (Primary Title)
Gulammohammed Sheikh, Indian, born 1937 (Artist)
“Living in India means living simultaneously in several times and cultures. . . . The past exists as a living entity alongside the present, each illuminating and sustaining the other.” —Gulammohammed Sheikh
A leader of the Baroda School, named for that city’s famed art institution, Gulammohammed Sheikh influenced a generation of the subcontinent’s artists, many of whom sought alternativesto Western modernism’s hold over 20th-century Indian art. His own work marks a revival of India’s narrative tradition, often pressed into the service of telling contemporary political stories. Raised Muslim in predominantly Hindu India, Sheikh has condemned all forms of religious extremism. This painting responds, in part, to 2002 sectarian atrocities in his home state of Gujarat. Its title references the tenth or future incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, the restorer of order and justice to a chaotic world. Its composition, based on an 18th-centuryIndian painting, is dotted with details. A tiny figure of Gandhi approaches Kalki’s throne; visual quotations from Picasso’s Guernica fill the background; a yogi’s erect phallus is transformed into a missile; and circling fighter jets suggest Indian-Pakistani military conflict.
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