Shibu Natesan. (India, B. 1966). "View from Dwaraka Lodge, Kovalam".
2001. Watercolor on Paper. Signed, dated on back.
Dimensions of work: 9 x 12 inches/(22.9 x 30.5 cm)
This work is custom framed and in excellent condition.

"View from Dwaraka Lodge, Kovalam" (2001) is an important and stunning watercolor by famed Indian artist, Shibu Natesan. Here, he has painted the image of a lone female figure in a bikini-style bathing suit, who sits by herself, water-side next to a bright multi-colored beach umbrella and traditional canoe-style boats, with a lush palm tree at center. "View from Dwaraka Lodge, Kovalam" depicts a rare, quiet moment in the bustling, popular resort town of Kovalam, that Indian, European and English tourists have frequented for generations, located as it is on the most south-western tip of the Indian sub-Continent, sitting directly on the Arabian Sea.

The feeling of foreshadowing is a constant in the work of Natesan, felt here, as if something is just about to occur to disrupt this calm. Things are not what they seem to be; the actuality and normalcy which these images represent becomes suspect. The artist uses harmony of theme, color and composition to deliver a more subversive sub-text. His watercolors are highly-sought after, and as a group can be defined as works that depict figurative South Asian themes, painted in a Western manner, no doubt influenced by Shibu's time formally painting in the 1990's in Europe.

Shibu Natesan is part of the important generation of artists from Kerala, India who studied in the early eighties at the College of Fine Arts in Trivandrum, a period where the art establishment in India was stifled and religated by a bureaucratic and government agenda, which Natesan and his fellow artists rebelled against. Instead, they looked towards both Indian and foreign film and literature for artistic inspiration, including translations of Latin American and African literature, which all ended up shaping the art and attitudes of this group.

Shibu Natesan was born in 1966 in Kerala, India. His work has been the subject of select solo and group exhibitions since the 1980's at the world's top galleries, art fairs and museums in U.S., Europe, and South Asia including in 2009 ‘External Affairs’, Grosvenor Vadehra, London; 2007 ‘Each One Teach One’, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; 2005 ‘Vision Unlimited’, Grosvenor Gallery, London.. The work of Natesan continues to be featured in select Museum, Art Fair and Gallery exhibitions including, 2012: 'Art for Humanity', Coomaraswamy Hall, Mumbai, India; in 2011 'The Intuitive: Logic Revisted', from the Osians Collection at The World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland" and in 2005 " ‘Parallel Realities’, The Third Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial", Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan. In 1996 the artist received the ‘Uriot Prize’, Rijksakademie van Beeldande Kunsten, Amsterdam, after the artist has spent two years painting and teaching from 1996 - '97 at the Rijksakademie. In 1982-87, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, India and in an M.A. in Printmaking, Department of Fine Arts, University of Baroda in 1991. The artist lives and works in India.