Important Notice

Manjit Bawa's sensitive, striking paintings of imagined and real beings stand out against homogenous backgrounds. His deceptively simple compositions, such as the present lot, draw from a range of mythological, religious, and visual traditions. The artist's use of vivid, flat fields of colour, stripped of superfluous details, is stylistically influenced both by Rajput and Pahari miniature painting and his formal training in silkscreen printing.... Manjit Bawa's sensitive, striking paintings of imagined and real beings stand out against homogenous backgrounds. His deceptively simple compositions, such as the present lot, draw from a range of mythological, religious, and visual traditions. The artist's use of vivid, flat fields of colour, stripped of superfluous details, is stylistically influenced both by Rajput and Pahari miniature painting and his formal training in silkscreen printing. The artist pares down the subjects of his paintings to the bare essentials of form and character, negotiating the tentative boundaries separating reality from the surreal.

Bawa has said that his characters are familiar faces from stories, experiences, memories, and the imagination. "As far as the figures are concerned, they are figments and fragments of my dream world. The split figures that remain suspended in space... convey my innermost emotions. Our life is about being suspended in spatial areas." (Artist quoted in "Manjit Bawa in Conversation with Ina Puri," Bhav Bhaav Bhavya: Frames of Eternity, Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery and Synergy Art Foundation Ltd.; Kolkata: Impresario; New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 1999, p. 6)

With their rounded, balloon-like features typical of the artist's style, the subjects of these figurative works are nonetheless individualised through details such as facial features, costumes and gestures. Placed against a bright red, flat background, which fellow artist Jagdish Swaminathan likened to folk theatre backdrops, Bawa succeeds in creating an image that appears to be in "animated suspension. As the image is revealed, the backdrop itself becomes the enactment." (J Swaminathan, "Dogs Too Keep Night Watch," S Kalidas, Bhavna Bawa et al, Let's Paint the Sky Red: Manjit Bawa, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, pp. 3637)

THE GUY AND HELEN BARBIER FAMILY COLLECTION

The Guy and Helen Barbier Family Collection started in 1978, when Guy Barbier travelled to India to set up Arthur Andersen & Co. Born out of an interest in and passion for the country at a time when there were few exhibitions and galleries showcasing contemporary Indian art, the Swiss collection would, over the next few decades, include artworks from the length and breadth of the country - including the present lot. The Barbiers counted several Indian artists and collectors among their friends, with whom they corresponded frequently and met on their visits to India. In 1987, noting the absence of contemporary art in the Festival of India in Geneva, the Barbiers were instrumental in organising and curating such an exhibition - one of the first of its kind in Europe - featuring works of Indian art from some of the most renowned private collections of the time.

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