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Lot 45

 

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“Stylisation and figuration cannot be forced or imitated–it flows naturally from an individual premise. At all times, it is your own voice, your signature.”
- MANJIT BAWA

Manjit Bawa’s oeuvre is unparalleled in the history of Indian art, standing apart from contemporaneous trends yet drawing from the deep well of established traditions. His determined pursuit of a unique individual style led to a singular calling card of... “Stylisation and figuration cannot be forced or imitated–it flows naturally from an individual premise. At all times, it is your own voice, your signature.”
- MANJIT BAWA

Manjit Bawa’s oeuvre is unparalleled in the history of Indian art, standing apart from contemporaneous trends yet drawing from the deep well of established traditions. His determined pursuit of a unique individual style led to a singular calling card of fluid figures against a brilliant flat backdrop. Bawa’s excellent draughtsmanship anchors his works; the artist considers line to be his most important element. He explained the centrality of drawing to his practice in saying, “...the importance of drawings can never be over?emphasised. In my mind drawing is the most important part of the overall structure the artist is trying to create whether he is a figurative or one who delves into the exploration of abstract art.” (Manjit Bawa, “Trust Life, Simple Trust, Do Not the Petals Flutter Down Just Like That?”, Ina Puri ed., Readings: Manjit Bawa, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 2010, p. 95)

This lot perfectly exemplifies Manjit Bawa’s exceptional draughtsmanship. A rosy?hued big cat frolics with a squirrel against a flat ground of bright green. The two figures mirror each other despite their considerable difference in size, creating a harmonious loop with each facing the other’s tail. Bawa masterfully creates a palpable sense of movement on the sparse canvas with his rippling lines. He immersed himself in drawing from a young age and honed this skill under the tutelage of renowned artist Abani Sen starting at 16. From Sen he learned the importance of anatomy and the crucial role space plays in composition. These became the guiding principles of his practice, even when the organic forms fragmented and hovered in the pictorial space of his works from the 1960s.

In the late 1970s, the forms once again coalesced into whole figures; these highly stylised figures were expressed with an astonishing fluidity of line made possible by Bawa’s obsessive lifelong sketching. He considered draughtsmanship central to the evolution of his art. Speaking of his practice at the time he matured into his signature style he said, “I progressed further as I developed more control now with my figuration. I sensed a feeling of lightness of being; my art became sahej.” (Bawa quoted in Ina Puri, In Black & White: The Authorized Biography of Manjit Bawa, New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2006, p. 167) On seeing Bawa’s works in this style for the first time, the artist Jagdish Swaminathan marked it as a massive turning point in his career. “With these works, Manjit emerges as a painter of true significance. The breakthrough has come about through a double metamorphosis. His earlier figurative work, gave place to abstraction where pneumatic forms–both erotic and horrific–floated in a void of mauves, pinks and greens. This phase has now been negated, and the synthesis has resulted in breathtaking poetry. Here animals, plants and humans all cohabit, taking their birth from the same ethereal tissue, like balloons blown into various shapes, engaged in a purposive play which defies understanding.” (Swaminathan quoted in S Kalidas, “Let’s Paint The Sky Red: Remembering Manjit Bawa in Art and in Life”, Manjit Bawa: Let’s Paint the Sky Red, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2011, p. 17)

Bawa was instinctively drawn to bright colours like in the present painting. He turned his back on muted Western colour palettes to fill his canvas with hot reds, blazing yellows and greens reminiscent of Pahari miniatures of the Basohli and Guler schools. This love of colour can be attributed to Bawa’s attachment to the Indian landscape. His appreciation of the high drama of the northern terrain was further deepened by his travels as a young man which impressed its moving vivacity upon him. Said Bawa of his expanding horizons, “As a college student I had visited Sohna once and seen the most incredible sight. The sun was setting and in that fiery sunset, the rocks glowed red and the Gulmohar blossoms appeared a deeper red. I was spell bound. In retrospect, that was when I first began using red in my paintings. Similarly, the vistas of our mustard fields, the bright cadmium yellow flowers of sarson (mustard), the paddy green, the deep blue waters of the Beas.” (Manjit Bawa to Ina Puri, “The Indian Crow in Post Modern Skies”, Manjit Bawa, Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery and London: Gallery Maya, 2005)

Bawa’s works are a celebration of the act of creation, one which deftly sublimates the particulars of the artist’s milieu, influences, interests and temperament onto gem?like canvases like the present lot. Indian filmmaker and poet Buddhadeb Dasgupta appraised the prismatic sophistication of Bawa’s art with, “Manjit’s art, complex and multilayered, beguiles the casual onlooker with its deceptive oversimplification. Nothing could be further from the truth. Manjit has spent a lifetime honing his skills as a draughtsman, artist and colourist, but–like a Zen master–he is also a minimalist and a purist.” (Buddhadeb Dasgupta as told to Ina Puri, “Wide Angle”, Ina Puri ed., Readings: Manjit Bawa, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 2010, p. 153)

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