Important Notice

"One was truly privileged to indulge in pure travel...My brother Sharokh and I spent months in Matheran, the Sahyadris, the Nilgiris and the Palni hills...we spent time talking, trekking and looking, and meeting the local people. We went on magnificent walks into the valleys, tried to make contact with the people and gathered knowledge of the rich flora and fauna."

- Jehangir Sabavala

Rice fields, Palni... "One was truly privileged to indulge in pure travel...My brother Sharokh and I spent months in Matheran, the Sahyadris, the Nilgiris and the Palni hills...we spent time talking, trekking and looking, and meeting the local people. We went on magnificent walks into the valleys, tried to make contact with the people and gathered knowledge of the rich flora and fauna."

- Jehangir Sabavala

Rice fields, Palni Hills - II painted in 2008, is Sabavala's representation of the verdant mountain ranges of Tamil Nadu, which he had visited during his extensive travels across India. Fractured planes are pronounced to great effect, highlighting the stepped form of the mountains. His technique was in constant flux, never stagnating or freezing into a single, defined style. The colour planes in the present lot are richly variegated, suggesting a Cubist approach, compared to the more fluid compositions in earlier landscapes.

Speaking about his recent paintings, including the present lot, exhibited by Sakshi Art Gallery in 2008, Sabavala said, "I have always readily responded to nature's strong imperatives, to its swift changing moods, to its grandeur and monumentality. Divinity in nature can perhaps be captured by silence and stillness-by a rendering of its atmosphere, a depiction of its quality of colour and light. With it comes a liberation of the spirit and all repressions fall away." (Artist statement, Ricorso: Jehangir Sabavala, Sakshi Art Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, Mumbai, September 2008, not paginated)

Indeed, Sabavala explored the same landscape at a different time of day in Rice fields, Palni Hills - I. Both paintings, (illustrated in Ricorso: Jehangir Sabavala, Sakshi Art Gallery Exhibition Catalogue,Mumbai, September 2008, not paginated)

Indeed, Sabavala explored the same landscape at a different time of day in Rice fields, Palni Hills - I. Both paintings, (illustrated in Ricorso: Jehangir Sabavala, Sakshi Art Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, Mumbai, September 2008) when viewed together, demonstrate his continued interest and response to the effects of changing light on the mood of a landscape.

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site