Amrita and Mrs. Sondhi

"Amitra and Mrs. Sondhi" is part of a series produced by Ken Lum in the 1980s titled Portrait Logos, in which the intimacy of a family portrait is interrupted by the look and feel of corporate advertising. Lum suggests the piece is actually a portrait of Mr. Sondhi, the "patriarch" of the family who is absent but represented in name and logo on the left hand side of the picture. He explains: "I was interested in the fact that Mr. Sondhi was always travelling, because he was a businessman. I think the world is still the man's oyster, especially in the third world, places like India, China. This piece was a meditation on that. He's not there, but he's there."