Important Notice

The early and mid 1960s marked one of the first and most definitive turning points of Jehangir Sabavala’s extensive artistic career. It was during this period of filtration and definition that he discovered the artistic vocabulary that would carry his paintings from mere “pretext for adventure” to being “site[s] of epiphany” that transcended common genres and motifs.

“Between 1961 and 1964, Sabavala attempted to break away from... The early and mid 1960s marked one of the first and most definitive turning points of Jehangir Sabavala’s extensive artistic career. It was during this period of filtration and definition that he discovered the artistic vocabulary that would carry his paintings from mere “pretext for adventure” to being “site[s] of epiphany” that transcended common genres and motifs.

“Between 1961 and 1964, Sabavala attempted to break away from the suffocating formality of Synthetic Cubism; and in this, he found a remedial alternative in the work of Lyonel Feininger…‘Through Feininger’s pure, precise and yet very delicate and personal renderings of cloud and boat and sea, I discovered the joys of extending form into the beauty and clarity of light. I became interested in the source of light, its direction, its effect. Through these experiments, gradually, my work changed’” (Ranjit Hoskote, The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 2005, p. 89, 95).

Speaking about the artist’s work from the early 1960s, in particular a similar 1963 canvas titled ‘The Intangible Menace’, S.V. Vasudev notes that Sabavala is, “No more concerned with producing mnemonics for nature, the artist concentrates on shapes in space and seeks to align the subjective, expressionistic urge with purely painterly values and technique, making use of Cubistic elements without rejecting the Impressionist feel for colour and light. The delicacy in applying colours wherever the rarified atmosphere is to be captured, the repeated search for forms seeking release in foreboding skies and seas, the undefined mood, suggest a certain turmoil in the artist’s mind. But one is aware all the time of Sabavala’s attempt to enrich and enliven his palette on a note of subtlety of broken and combined tones, assisted by ingenious brushwork” (“Analytical Notes”, Sabavala, Sadanga Series, Vakil, Feffer & Simon, Mumbai, 1966).

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