Raqib Shaw was born in Kolkata and moved to London in 1998 to study at Central Saint Martins. His first major solo exhibition, Garden of Earthly Delights (2004) at Victoria Miro Gallery, launched him into the spotlight. He has held solo shows at prestigious institutions including the Tate Britain and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Nowadays, I am able to greet beauty was conceived initially as a line drawing while the artist was studying. Without access to live models, the artist drew instead on the charged visual economy of Soho, near Old Compton Street, including the then newly opened Soho Prowler shop. The title is taken from Arthur Rimbald's 'Une Saison En Enfer', whose hallucinatory and inebriated spirit informs the composition.
The image was assembled after half a bottle of absinthe infused with hemp seeds, amid joking conversations about breakfast, resulting in a playful yet disquieting vision. Fruit subtly mutates into cannibalistic faces, suggesting that beauty may be admired but not safely touched. The protagonist is wearing a crown of cornflower blue-hued Kashmir sapphires, already anticipating the tension between seduction, danger, and melancholia that would later become central to Shaw's practice.
Specifications
- Digital prints on Somerset Satin 330gsm paper
- Size height 36cm x width 53cm
- Weight 1.8kg
- Signed
- £750 unframed (framed also available)
- Limited edition of 22