Tyeb Mehta
(1925 - 2009)
Untitled
This rare, early work by Tyeb Mehta is one of the few gestural expressionist paintings he made before his trip to America in 1968 on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, where he embarked on his investigation into colour field painting. Composed of brown and red hues, the seated figures would blend into the hazy background, were it not for the animated gestures of the man on the left. His face, with its expressive features, is the focal point of...
This rare, early work by Tyeb Mehta is one of the few gestural expressionist paintings he made before his trip to America in 1968 on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, where he embarked on his investigation into colour field painting. Composed of brown and red hues, the seated figures would blend into the hazy background, were it not for the animated gestures of the man on the left. His face, with its expressive features, is the focal point of the canvas. In 1966, Mehta made a series of drawings for Ebrahim Alkazi's adaptation of Euripides' Trojan Women (see reference image), and it is likely that the present lot stems from Mehta's interactions with the director at the National School of Drama in New Delhi. The sombre tones and draped robes are similar to those used in the play. A solo show at the Kumar Gallery in New Delhi in 1966 highlighted similar works from that period, demonstrating a strong preoccupation with the subject. Mehta was known to be a contemplative artist who mused over his paintings for extended periods of time before completing them. Making only a few paintings a year, Mehta's art always holds something thought provoking. "Proceeding by an archaeology of motive and decision, we may infer that he started with images that had haunted him, burning themselves deep into his mental circuitry. We may infer, also, that these obsessional images, autobiographical in import, gradually gained in significance as Tyeb externalised them, reflected on them, and allowed them to shimmer against the wider canvas of society." (Hoskote, Gandhi et. al., Ideas Images Exchanges, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2005, p. 14) The present lot already contains the juxtaposition of emotional intensity and calm fragility which defines the tension in his later works.
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Lot
52
of
80
EVENING SALE OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ART
24 FEBRUARY 2016
Estimate
Rs 4,00,00,000 - 5,00,00,000
$588,240 - 735,295
ARTWORK DETAILS
Tyeb Mehta
Untitled
1966
Oil on canvas
48.5 x 58 in (123.5 x 147.5 cm)
PROVENANCE: Property of a Gentleman, New Delhi
PUBLISHED: Hoskote, Gandhi et.al., Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2005, p. 77 (illustrated)
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'