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Lot 20

 

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Pared of all surfeit detail, Manjit Bawa’s fluid figures seem magically frozen against the bright, saturated fields of colour that the artist creates, inspired by both the miniature traditions of India and the silkscreen processes he studied in England. Yet, these figures do not lack depth. Rather than brushstroke and texture, Bawa relies on subtle chiaroscuro to give his subjects volume; and instead of developing a narrative, the artist... Pared of all surfeit detail, Manjit Bawa’s fluid figures seem magically frozen against the bright, saturated fields of colour that the artist creates, inspired by both the miniature traditions of India and the silkscreen processes he studied in England. Yet, these figures do not lack depth. Rather than brushstroke and texture, Bawa relies on subtle chiaroscuro to give his subjects volume; and instead of developing a narrative, the artist concentrates on perfecting structure and form. Though his may seem a naïve figurative aesthetic at first, these characteristics come together to bestow Bawa’s characters with a dreamlike presence, and his paintings with an arresting luminosity. Describing the gods, humans and animals that populate Bawa’s canvases, Ranjit Hoskote says that, “each form, animal and human, rejoices in its plasticity and libidinal energy, its gymnastic ability to defy the strictures of the anatomist. The rounded contours of each toy-like figure speak of its prana. The life-breath that gives it a vital buoyancy, allowing it to occupy rather than be trapped in those flat, glowing, single-colour fields of red, yellow, green or blue that are Bawa’s hallmark device” (Manjit Bawa – Modern Miniatures, Recent Paintings, Bose Pacia Modern exhibition catalogue, 2000, unpaginated).

In this untitled canvas, as in many of Bawa’s other works, the interaction and coexistence of humans and animals has emphasized by the artist. Here, an extraordinary woman dressed in a vividly coloured cape and scarf quietly contemplates the jewel-blue bird that is perched on her shoulder. The woman, possibly an oracle gleaning the future from a magical bird, generates a tranquil aura about her, like the Sufi mystics whose spirituality and philosophy deeply moved the artist. Understanding this portrayal of interaction between species to be a preoccupation with “the theme of a universal language of communication”, Ranjit Hoskote believes that Bawa’s works probe the dynamics and asymmetries of relationships like those between creator and viewer, spectator and performer, and perhaps even between Bawa and his autistic son, Ravi. (Ibid.).

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