Oil on canvas painting entitled Parched Earth, created in 1975. 

This image is discoloured.

Excerpt from Geeta Kapur, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Publisher Unknown, 1976: 

'Vivan Sundaram titles this exhibition of pictures The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. We know historically the bougeoisie as a class gains its discretion and its charm only after a certain period of acculturation, only after having sublimated its wealth and acquired some of the taste, if not the instinct of the aristocracy. A colonial bourgeoisie, we should add, is different on account of its special origins and it differs from the western counterpart even in matters of style, which it gains not by genuine effort nor by emulating the local aristocracy but by a more or less abject surrender to foreign influence. Judging by the objects depicted, pile carpet, lace table-cloth, leather chair, snazzy bath-tub. Vivan's reference is presumably to that section of the Indian bourgeoisie that has fulfilled its apprenticeship to the colonial masters and can now boast an international status, living as it does in pent-house apartments and five star hotels.’ 

Exhibition history: ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,’ Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda; Jawaharlal Nehru University and Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi; Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta; Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay; 1976, Illustrated catalogue.