KING'S HAREM: The exploitation of authority Mondal alludes to, is best seen in the background of these paintings, which provide no hint of location, place or culture. The imagery of the 'naked king' speaks volume of the trauma faced by society, as much as being an allegorical narrative about the hardships of his own life
KING AS MANIPULATOR: 'Conveying great power and strength of artistic intent, Rabin Mondal’s art is a significant milestone in Indian modernism,' says Kishore Singh, senior VP, exhibitions and publications at DAG, who curated this retrospective
KING AND HIS ASSASSIN: The exhibit titled ‘The Tyranny of Power’ will also feature the preparatory drawings that the artist made ahead of the series, all from the DAG collection
KING BEING APPEASED: Mondal used the chequered floor tiles and closing-in walls to describe a sense of being choked, recreating a sense of doom, as potent as Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’
KING AFTER CORONATION: The explosive nature of Mondal’s work caught the attention of international curators when the series was showcased at the Shanghai Biennale in 2016
KING DETHRONED: 'The decision that the King Series must be allowed to remain intact is my way of showing respect for an artist who cared little about the world, even less about himself, but whose craft remained the most important thing in his life,' says Ashish Anand, MD and CEO of DAG
KING AS CHRIST: The Cubo-futuristic angularities of forms within the pictorial space arranged around them evolved into a series of paintings depicting human figures that struggle to live a hero’s life in a tragic world
ARRIVAL OF THE KING: ‘The Tyranny of Power’ accompanies a special catalogue and opens at Dubai Art on March 11, 2022