Page 114 - Pundole's Auction M0015

58 #
PROPERTY FROM THE GLENBARRA ART MUSEUM, JAPAN
MANJIT BAWA
1941?–?2008
A Goat, a Girl and a Tree
Oil on canvas
1982
54 × 72 in. (137 × 183 cm.)
Bearing a label ‘Name of Artist: Manjit Bawa / Title of
Painting: A Goat, a Girl and a Tree / Year: 1982 / Size: 183
× 152 cm / Collection: Krishen Khanna, Delhi.’ on reverse
??1,50,00,000?–?2,50,00,000
$ 223,880?–?373,135
PROVENANCE:
Formerly in the collection of the artist Krishen Khanna.
LITERATURE:
Contemporary Indian Art, Glenbarra Art Museum Collection,
Himeji, 1993, p.?132, illustrated.
Upon Manjit Bawa’s death, his close friend and fellow artist
Krishen Khanna commented: ‘Manjit and I worked in Ghari
(art studios in Delhi) together. We used to meet very
frequently. And ours was a small group of painter-friends
and Manjit was the youngest of all’, says Khanna. ‘We were
all rather different painters, but obviously good friends. I feel
very sad. His contribution to Indian art is very unique and
I can’t think of anyone who painted like him.’ (Riddhi Doshi,
‘Memories of Manjit Bawa, Art World Mourns the Loss’,
www.dnaindia.com, 29 December 2008)
Given their friendship, it comes as no surprise that Khanna
collected his young friend’s paintings. Khanna saw the
current work at Manjit’s studio just after it was completed.
It immediately reminded him of The Sleeping Gypsy, a
painting by the French Post-Impressionist painter Henri
Rousseau, which Manjit was completely unaware of.
Henri Rousseau
The Sleeping Gypsy entities with regard to overall composition. The artist has
oil on canvas
51"×?79", 1897
Museum of
Modern Art,
New York
110
Khanna further elucidates, ‘The balloon-like shapes found
an easy and logical transition into his human, animal and
plant shapes. He was making a philosophical assertion
in addition to the aesthetic which naturally followed. He was
implying that the same force inhabits all creation.’ (Krishen
Khanna, Let’s Paint the Sky Red Manjit Bawa, New Delhi,
2011, p.?101) The work formed part of his collection for
many years before becoming part of a museum collection.
Bawa’s paintings are defined by a pure, simple style that
use large, flat, saturated fields of colour and bold, fluid
outlines to depict a harmonious assortment of animals,
human beings and popular figures from Hindu mythology
and religion. His works are dominated by colour over detail
and form over narrative. The influence of Indian classical
painting is also apparent in Manjit’s works. His figures
appear like images from Ragamala miniature paintings
of the Pahari courts, except they are transposed to a
monumental scale. Despite this explosion of scale, his
figures retain an expressive and narrative quality that
recalls the classical tradition. It is this unexpected balance
between the huge forms and their lyrical treatment that
creates such a powerful and immediate impact when
viewed.
Bawa’s choice of colours usually veer towards bright and
bold colours, and very rarely would include what he referred
to the more staid greys or browns. ‘...My own idiom has
evolved further. Increasingly, I avoid clutter and paint in a
style that is minimalistic, austerely. Indic mythology, the
epic mythic as well as impressions of life, people and
animals inevitable find their way into my canvas and have
become my dramatis-personae.’ (The artist in conversation
with Ina Puri, Manjit Bawa, exhibition catalogue, Sakshi
Gallery, London, 2005, unpaginated)
One of the main themes of Manjit’s works, as seen in the
current work, is the emotionally charged interaction
between man and animals. As Kamala Kapoor explains,
‘The balance of whimsical forms, shows Bawa’s control
of the problems of illusionistic space, figure ground
relationships and narrative tension... Like his human
figures, his animals, hybrid, fantastical and sometimes
realistic and even phantasmic, function as autonomous
developed a vocabulary for his images, both human and
animal, that enables him to carry the narration and
metaphors on their own.’ (Kamala Kapoor, ‘Manjit Bawa’,
In Transit III Manjit Bawa Ravinder Reddy, exhibition
catalogue, Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin, 2005, p. 6)