In Sabavala's canvases form and content are often perfectly interwoven. With their covered heads and enigmatically obscured faces, the female protagonists of this painting remind us of pilgrims, setting off on a spiritual journey. And Sabavala's delicate interpretation of the French Cubists' shattering of 3-dimensional perspective underscores the transcendental nature of his subject matter. As shifting shards of color...
In Sabavala's canvases form and content are often perfectly interwoven. With their covered heads and enigmatically obscured faces, the female protagonists of this painting remind us of pilgrims, setting off on a spiritual journey. And Sabavala's delicate interpretation of the French Cubists' shattering of 3-dimensional perspective underscores the transcendental nature of his subject matter. As shifting shards of color intersect on the canvas, the figures appear strangely insubstantial, suffused with an ethereal glow. Not flesh and blood characters, they become vehicles for a mystical revelation. "The eponymous Women in Grey, arrayed in diaphanous mantillas, pass in a slow dance through what appears to be a catacomb, an amethyst alternation of protrusions and recesses, their gaze fixed on another order of being." (p. 7, Ranjit Hoskote, Occasions of Light: Recent Paintings by Jehangir Sabavala, Sakshi Gallery, Exhibition Catalogue, 2002)