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“The colours and the simplicity of people I met fascinated me.”
MANJIT BAWA
21
MANJIT BAWA
(1941 ‒ 2008)
Untitled
Signed and dated 'Manjit 95' (on the reverse)
1995
Oil on canvas
23.25 x 21.5 in (58.9 x 54.3 cm)
Rs 60,00,000 ‒ 80,00,000
$ 95,240 ‒ 126,985
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Private Collection, New Delhi
Saffronart, 10 September 2015, lot 29
Acquired from the above
Manjit Bawa’s art was like the artist himself, a sensitive and
complex amalgamation of influences that were vast and
eclectic. For technique, he drew upon Mughal, Rajput and
Pahari miniatures as well as silk‒screen printing, which he
studied in Britain. For narrative, he dove into stories from
Indian mythology. The serenity of Bawa’s flat background
colours, was perhaps informed by Sufism, a philosophy he
believed in deeply. By absorbing each of these elements,
and a rigorous training in figurative drawing at the School
of Art in Delhi, Bawa began distorting forms and created
stylisations that were his own.
Bawa painted humans and animals with equal fluidity,
capturing nuances of expression with a few masterful
strokes. “Manjit’s art was not so much narrative as it was
tersely idiomatic. Short staccato phrases pregnant with as
many possibilities as the reader could read into them… Yet,
with just the right gesture or a twist of the rubbery body his
magical paintings could encapsulate whole Puranic legends
and folk tales with a subversive sense of humour.” (S Kalidas,
Let’s Paint the Sky Red: Manjit Bawa
, New Delhi: Vadehra
Art Gallery, 2011, p. 19) The present lot, a seemingly simple
portrait of a woman, holds within it a world of meaning,
possibilities, and references. Pensively staring off canvas, she
touches her necklace with her rubbery, spider‒like fingers.
She has elements of the classical muse, yet could belong to
the present. There are no indications of place or scale, she
seems timeless in her reverie.
Untitled
, 1995
Saffronart, New Delhi, 10 September 2015, lot 14
Sold for INR 72 lakhs ($110,769)
Bawa’s art was influenced by a wide range
of sources, including miniature painting
Portrait of a Princess
, Marwar, circa 1780
Saffronart,
Classical Indian Art
, Mumbai,
14 December 2015, lot 9