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Lot 18

Manjit Bawa`s strikingly vivid canvases reflect the duality of his influences his early training in serigraphy and silkscreen printing in England and, upon his return to India, by the Rajput and Pahari miniature paintings, mythology, religious teaching, and Sufi poetry. His rich palette, fields of saturated color, and filtration of form to its bare essentials reflect these different influences, as well as his upbringing in the heart of Punjab.... Manjit Bawa`s strikingly vivid canvases reflect the duality of his influences his early training in serigraphy and silkscreen printing in England and, upon his return to India, by the Rajput and Pahari miniature paintings, mythology, religious teaching, and Sufi poetry. His rich palette, fields of saturated color, and filtration of form to its bare essentials reflect these different influences, as well as his upbringing in the heart of Punjab.

Although he is a figurative painter, whose work springs from personal memories, experiences and beliefs, Bawa`s men, women, gods and animals are suspended wondrously in colorful space and are rendered with a simple fluidity that borders on the abstract. Rather than brushstroke and texture, Bawa relies on subtle shading to deliver depth to his canvases, and rather than developing a narrative, he perfects form. Though this may seem a naïve aesthetic, these characteristics come together to give his paintings an arresting luminosity, and his characters a dreamlike presence.

In the present lot, like many other of the artist`s canvases, the relationship between humans and animals is central. Understanding Bawa`s portrayal of interaction between different species as a preoccupation with "the theme of a universal language of communication", Ranjit Hoskote characterizes the artist`s works as probing the dynamics and asymmetries of relationships like those between creator and viewer, spectator and performer. (Manjit Bawa – Modern Miniatures, Recent Paintings, Bose Pacia Modern exhibition catalogue, 2000, unpaginated).

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