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Tyeb Mehta: In Search of Lightness

Tyeb Mehta places his Standing Figure on a ground of ochre against subtle pastel shades, all contained within cleanly defined planes. He creates a composition that is neat and deceptively simple. The colours are secured within their boundaries and the lines define the contours and the semblance of a female form. The figure commands the viewer's full attention: "In Tyeb's painting, the... Tyeb Mehta: In Search of Lightness

Tyeb Mehta places his Standing Figure on a ground of ochre against subtle pastel shades, all contained within cleanly defined planes. He creates a composition that is neat and deceptively simple. The colours are secured within their boundaries and the lines define the contours and the semblance of a female form. The figure commands the viewer's full attention: "In Tyeb's painting, the figure is the bearer of all drama, momentum and crisis, a detonation against the ground it occupies and commands" (Ranjit Hoskote, Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2005, p. 4). The raised hand with double outlines hints at movement and suggests a sequence of events which might follow.

Mehta's juxtaposition of colour fields was a meticulous process arrived at after trial and careful consideration. He was deeply interested in the work of Barnett Newman (1905 - 1970), whose art he encountered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1968 when visiting on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship. An American abstract artist who pioneered 'colour field painting', Newman broke the picture plane by exploring the expressive potential of colour. In Mehta's painting, these colour planes act as a "ligature"(Hoskote, p. 4), binding the figure to the fields, and hence its fate. According to fellow artist Krishen Khanna, Mehta was also fascinated by the calm stillness of Rothko's canvases. "Normally brush marks suggest areas of directions. I wanted to avoid all this to bring elements down to such a minimal level that the image alone would be sufficient to speak for itself." (Interview by N.T. Seth, Tyeb Mehta: Ideas, Images, Exchanges, New Delhi, 2005, p. 342).

Mehta went through a meticulous process of distilling his technique. His style gradually shifted from "expressionistic....typified by a direct rendering of experience on the surface" (Yashodhara Dalmia, "Metamorphosis: From Mammal to Man", Tyeb Mehta: Triumph of Vision, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2011, p. 5) to pure and precise renderings of line and colour reduced to their essence.

"The human figure has become part of my vocabulary, like a certain way of applying colour or breaking up images. It is a sort of vehicle for me. I am not a minimalist or abstract painter... my work is still expressionist. The human figure is my source, what I primarily react to. But in transferring that image to canvas, I begin to think in terms of modulating the canvas, distributing areas of colour and apportioning space. I put a certain distance between myself as the seer and the canvas as the seen to allow the painting to exist as an entity in its own right." (Interview by N.T. Seth, p. 343).

Mehta's world view was shaped by the acts of extreme violence he witnessed during the Partition riots. Reflecting on his art in a 1986 interview with Yashodhara Dalmia, he explained, "...there are many levels of violence that one goes through as a human being." His art has always reflected an undercurrent of violence. Some of the more intense shades of violence were purged by the time Mehta painted Standing Figure. In a conversation, fellow artist Krishen Khanna said that Mehta's art was always beautiful and elegant, but somewhat insidiously so. The present lot is painted with calculated precision to create compositional serenity which is juxtaposed against an undefined, unresolved sense of tension.

"...Tyeb's art is not simply figurative, but rather is figural: it does not content itself merely with representing the human form, but navigates between abstraction and conceptual play on the one hand, and the illusionism of representation on the other." (Hoskote, p. 20)

In an untitled painting of 1981, Mehta similarly depicts a single standing figure, yet he continues to explore compositional variations and moves from bold earthy colours to a more delicate palette of pastel shades. The present lot shares the shadow arms and distended body parts that characterize Mehta's androgynous figures. It can also be viewed as a precursor to his famous Santiniketan Triptych at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, in which the figure is further transformed to stand alone as well as be placed in groups, with a bold colour palette. The early 80s were a period of significant artistic refinement in Mehta's thought process and his technique.

"It's like Milan Kundera who shows us how everything we choose and value in life for its lightness soon reveals its true unbearable weight. I wanted to look at my subject with a different logic, a different perspective and with fresh methods of cognition and interpretation. That is what art is. You have to be rooted to the earth but also learn to fly with your imagination."
- Tyeb Mehta


Davida and Chester Herwitz

The importance of Tyeb Mehta's Standing Figure is heightened owing to its illustrious provenance: The Davida and Chester Herwitz Collection. From Worcester, Massachusetts, the Herwitzes shared a passion for travelling and collecting art, and are credited with amassing one of the world's largest collections of Modern Indian art. They first visited India in 1962, and continued making frequent trips to the country.

The Herwitzes actively supported the careers of many Indian artists whose works formed part of their extensive collection. They developed a special relationship with M. F. Husain, whose art was one of their very first purchases. The Herwitzes did not simply buy art: they engaged with it on a cerebral level and were deeply involved with artists, art critics and gallerists. Among those they frequently interacted with were art critic Richard Bartholomew, Pheroza Godrej of Cymroza Art Gallery, and artist K. Laxma Goud.

The Herwitzes helped place Indian art on the international scene. Among the four thousand paintings which were part of their collection, they loaned many to galleries and museums for public viewing. Following their demise, the Peabody Essex Museum acquired nearly 1,600 paintings by modern Indian artists from their collection. The Museum remains unrivalled in its collection of post- independence art from the Indian subcontinent.

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