Important Notice

“In the early work, expression was all-important...I was painting from the gut.” - TYEB MEHTA

Tyeb Mehta has "consistently sought the autonomy of the image and authenticity of expression" in all his works. (Yashodhara Dalmia, "Tyeb Mehta," Journeys: Four Generations of Indian Artists in Their Own Words – Volume I, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 87)

While minimalist figuration became an integral part of... “In the early work, expression was all-important...I was painting from the gut.” - TYEB MEHTA

Tyeb Mehta has "consistently sought the autonomy of the image and authenticity of expression" in all his works. (Yashodhara Dalmia, "Tyeb Mehta," Journeys: Four Generations of Indian Artists in Their Own Words – Volume I, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 87)

While minimalist figuration became an integral part of his later works, his paintings from the late 1950s and early 60s are markedly different and are "typified by a direct rendering of experience on the surface. His paintings in sombre tones could loosely be termed expressionistic and articulated the fate of individuals who were in some way cornered by fate." (Yashodhara Dalmia, Tyeb Mehta: A Triumph of Vision, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2011, p. 5) Several works from this early phase, including the present lot, depict human figures who appear to be made of wet clay, just emerging out of the earth to which they belong. This dramatic heaviness of form was an early manifestation of his recurring concern with the human condition, though Mehta's works from a decade later show his move to the opposite end of the spectrum wherein he created lighter figures with the help of a brighter palette.

Painted in 1961 during his stay in England, Untitled (Figure of a Woman) has Mehta using an almost monochromatic palette to portray a weighty, seated female figure who appears to be lost in contemplation. Her face, with its forlorn features, speaks of grief and defeat - emotions that are echoed by her body as well, with one arm pillowing her head and the other resting on her raised knee as though unable to stand up against the weight of the despair surrounding her.

The canvas is layered with thick, impasto-laden brushwork through which the figure is revealed. "The thickly stroked paint would layer the surface with a heavy patina of disquiet. The rendering of colours, of equal tonality and applied in verisimilitude, provided a cohesion, which would yet seem like a fierce interlocking. A compressed battle would ensue also between figure and the space surrounding it." (Dalmia, p. 5)

The female form in the present lot dominates the canvas, as is the case with many of the figures in Mehta's early and later works. By placing her front and centre, and using only subtle variations of hue and tone, Mehta blurs the boundaries between object and context. "These are landscapes of the human spirit, forlorn and tragic and uncomprisingly [sic] alone." (Ebrahim Alkazi quoted in Ranjit Hoskote, Ramachandra Guha et al., Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2005, p. 371)

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