Untitled (reclining nude)
terracotta
16.3cm. wide

Provenance: Collection of Robert Skelton, O.B.E. (1929-2022)

Early in the artists career, in 1981, he was awarded a British Council scholarship to study at the Royal Academy. In the following year, he was included in the artists chosen to exhibit at the Royal Academy as part of the Festival of India held in Britain in that year. If they had not already met, this would have brought Mistry to the attention of Robert Skelton, who was heavily involved in many of the events organised as part of that celebration of Indian culture. Mistry remained in London and, in April 1988, he spent a period as artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The products of this collaboration were a series of small studies, many in terracotta, which draw on recognisable classical Indian forms whilst accepting an aesthetic sympathetic to the approaches of modern western art. Our model comes from this period of Mistry's output and was purchased by Skelton directly from the artist. A number remain in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, such as IS.49 to 50-1988.