Exhibition Details

Aicon is pleased to announce 'Archaeologist at the Ancient City', a retrospective of the late Mohan Samant (1924-2004) from August 15, 2024 until September 21, 2024.
The exhibition charts his dynamic practice from the early 1960s through 2003 with examples of his heavily textured surfaces from the 1960s and 70s, three-dimensional paper cut-outs starting in 1975, intricately hand-bent wire figures and cut niches that appeared in the 1980s, and finally, the expert melding of these canvas expanding processes in the 1990s and 2000s. Alongside important canvases highlighting Samant’s unique idiom is a collection of watercolor-based works on paper from the 80s and 90s. 'Archaeologist at the Ancient City' is presented in collaboration with Jillian Samant and Abraham Joel.
'Archaeologist at the Ancient City', (2003) is among one of Samant’s final works. In this extraordinary canvas, we see how the artist revisited themes and techniques that spanned his career. From vibrant color-field backgrounds to watercolor paper cut-outs, from textured art-brut-like surfaces to delicately lined figures, this painting weaves together art historical citations and Indian-inspired allegories to create what Ranjit Hoskote called a “one-man avant-garde.” Samant was a transcultural artist who absorbed the visual complexities of Hindu temples, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and pre-Columbian ceramics, to name a few, and combined them with references to European artists like Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso to create an endlessly developing style that was all his own.