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JEHANGIR SABAVALA
(1922 ‒ 2011)
Treeline II
Signed and dated 'Sabavala 86' (lower right)
1986
Oil on canvas
36.25 x 60.25 in (92.2 x 153 cm)
Rs 2,00,00,000 ‒ 3,00,00,000
$ 317,465 ‒ 476,195
PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the artist
Private Collection, Mumbai
Private Collection, New Delhi
PUBLISHED:
Ranjit Hoskote ed.,
Pilgrim, Exile, Sorcerer: The Painterly Evolution of Jehangir
Sabavala
, Mumbai: Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd., 1998, p. 167 (illustrated)
View of the Western Ghats
Wikimedia Commons
"I have always responded to nature’s strong imperatives, to its
swift changing moods, to its grandeur and monumentality."
J SABAVALA
Jehangir Sabavala’s art is universal and placeless, drawing
deliberately from European traditions. But film maker
Arun Khopkar points out that “People who only knew him
as a ‘Westernised” person, did not know how deep was his
knowledge of the Indian landscape, its trees, rocks, ravines
and waterfalls.” (Arun Khopkar, “Colours of Absence,”
The
Hindu Magazine
, 10 September 2011, online) The present
lot presents a sweeping, mountainous landscape with hints
of domes and precise tree structures in the foreground,
which are quite likely based on the terrain of the Western
Ghats. Sabavala incorporated elements of Cubism into
this ethereal view of a landscape which is familiar and yet
evokes references beyond itself.
Image courtesy of Shirin Sabavala