Frieze Masters 2023

11th October, 2023 - 15th October, 2023

Prahlad Bubbar is delighted to participate in the prestigious Frieze Masters London as part of ‘Stand Out’, a section of the fair curated by Luke Syson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

The overall theme of ‘Stand Out’ is colour and our gallery will tell a story of colour as the lead protagonist in extraordinary and symbolic applications, from textiles to ceramics and painting. Within each medium, an artist has used colour as a visual synecdoche and a dominant or standout hue seeks to represent larger and more universal ideas such as divinity and purity.

Examples of exceptional chromatic works that the gallery will bring to the fair are a very rare and large pichhvai work from Rajasthan, a group of minimalist 9^th-10^th century Nishapur ceramics and a rare 17th century vase-carpet fragment, among other masterpieces:

The exuberant early 19^th century painting on cloth or pichhvai from Kota or Nathdwara, Rajasthan, comes from the highly important collection of Sam Josefowitz, a major collector of Impressionist art. The painting depicts Krishna playing his magical flute amongst a delicate web of lotus blossoms. Their coiling stems twist across the painting’s surface, surrounding Krishna, Radha and Yamuniji with lush green leaves, pink-tipped lotus petals and buzzing insects. The background, with its enveloping vastness, is a soft blue, evoking the cool waters of the Yamuna river.

A group of remarkable 9^th-10^th century earthenware bowls from Nishapur in Eastern Iran embrace within their form a tradition of ceramic art that represents the ‘silk route’, which connected Iranian and West Asian Islamic lands with Central Asia and China. For works of this antiquity, the remarkably modern and minimalist calligraphic decoration is noteworthy as the elegant, truncated, cone-shaped bowls, formed of white slip painted with coloured brown manganese and red clay under a transparent lead-based glaze. .

Vase-technique carpets were crafted in the Kerman and surrounding regions during the Safavid period, spanning from the early 17th to the mid-18th century. The Safavid period witnessed the production of these remarkable works that deftly fused weaving craftsmanship with artistic expression. This rare and important fragment from the New York Square Lattice and Shrub Carpet, woven in Kerman, South Central Iran, is a masterful creation of floral and geometric motifs.

Press

Ocula: Frieze Masters 2023 Artwork Highlights.
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Frieze: Colour: A Tour of ‘Stand Out’ at Frieze Masters 2023. Video with Luke Syson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and curator of Stand Out.
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Frieze: Colour Through the Ages in ‘Stand Out’ at Frieze Masters.
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FAD magazine: Frieze Reveals London & Masters Highlights.
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Frieze Masters
11-15 October 2023
The Regent’s Park
London NW1 4HA

Wednesday Preview, 11 October
Thursday Preview, 12 October
Friday – Saturday Public Days, 13 October – 15 October