Priya Singh
Head of Department
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Lot 10*
Talha Rathore(B.1970)Untitled
1 – 10 September 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, New Bond Street£4,000 - £6,000
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Louise Almeras
Cataloguer
Talha Rathore (B.1970)
Untitled
signed 'Talha Rathore' in Urdu and dated '96' lower left; artist name, 'Untitled' and medium verso
ink and gouache on wasli, framed
21.9 x 17cm (8 5/8 x 6 11/16in).
signed 'Talha Rathore' in Urdu and dated '96' lower left; artist name, 'Untitled' and medium verso
ink and gouache on wasli, framed
21.9 x 17cm (8 5/8 x 6 11/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Property from a private collection, Australia.
Trained at the National College of Arts, Lahore, Rathore belongs to the pioneering generation of contemporary miniature artists who redefined the practice for a global stage. Rooted in the classical discipline of miniature painting, her work retains the painstaking precision of line and surface, while simultaneously transforming the idiom into a space for contemporary expression. Rathore's early practice, of which this work is an important example, reveals her ability to balance tradition and innovation through a language that is at once personal and universal.
In Untitled, two trees are depicted at opposite ends of the composition, leaning delicately toward one another. A thin thread ties their branches together, binding them across space, against a glowing orange ground that radiates both warmth and tension. The presence of a floral border at the top recalls the conventions of classical miniature painting, yet Rathore subverts expectation by using it to frame a scene suffused with modern metaphor. The two trees, fragile yet tethered, suggest themes of distance, connection, and enduring bonds, motifs that would become central to her practice in later years. Executed with great economy of means and formal clarity, this early work demonstrates Rathore's ability to distil vast emotional registers into the intimate scale of the miniature.