Important Notice

Witness to violence and horror at a very young age, the images of slaughtering and powerlessness have had a profound impact on Tyeb Mehta. He explored these themes through his falling figures and trussed bulls. His figures remain mangled in pain and fear, forcing the viewer to witness the brutality of human nature. "Tyeb's focal images are symptomatic of their lifeworld: they attest to the churning chaos of Indian society, its antinomies of... Witness to violence and horror at a very young age, the images of slaughtering and powerlessness have had a profound impact on Tyeb Mehta. He explored these themes through his falling figures and trussed bulls. His figures remain mangled in pain and fear, forcing the viewer to witness the brutality of human nature. "Tyeb's focal images are symptomatic of their lifeworld: they attest to the churning chaos of Indian society, its antinomies of eroticism and violence, aggression and tenderness, helplessness and brute force. Magisterial as they are, dominating the spaces they occupy, these presences are nevertheless first and foremost figures of crisis" ("Images of Transcendence: Towards a New Reading of Tyeb Mehta's Art", Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2005, pg. 15)

"A primary experience of shock resonates at the core of Tyeb Mehta's figuration. It is difficult to come away from one of his paintings without sensing a disquiet that is barely held in check by the seam of the line; an anguish bursts against the skin of the pigment. Nothing can completely still this primary experience of shock, although it is considerably muted by the programmatic cooling of structure and the healing strokes of color for which Tyeb's works are distinguished. Standing before these often monumental- scale frames, we bear helpless witness to the predicaments into which the artist knits his singular, isolated protagonists" (Ranjit Hoskote, "Images of Transcendence: Towards a New Reading of Tyeb Mehta's Art", Tyeb Mehta - Ideas, Images, Exchanges, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2005, pg. 3).

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