Important Notice

The present lot is part of Tyeb Mehta's Falling Figure series that he first began painting in the mid?1960s. Composed of fractured planes, distorted limbs and agonised faces, the figures in this series are depicted falling headlong into an undefined abyss. In many ways, the Falling Figure captures the essence of Tyeb Mehta's art, articulating his preoccupation with addressing the human condition. Mehta witnessed violence at several... The present lot is part of Tyeb Mehta's Falling Figure series that he first began painting in the mid?1960s. Composed of fractured planes, distorted limbs and agonised faces, the figures in this series are depicted falling headlong into an undefined abyss. In many ways, the Falling Figure captures the essence of Tyeb Mehta's art, articulating his preoccupation with addressing the human condition. Mehta witnessed violence at several impressionable periods during his life, leaving him with a repertoire of haunting images that he visited often in his works. The sectarian violence he experienced during the Partition remained the underlying element in his oeuvre. The powerful bull, the lone trapped rickshaw puller, falling birds and figures, as well as the goddesses Kali and Durga, are all used to express his feeling of bewilderment and anguish about the violence he encountered. Mehta's art reflected his quiet and introspective personality; it was as subtle and nuanced as it was powerful.

In its depiction of reigned in violence, the series evokes the notion of the Absurd, conveying a fundamental sense of disharmony which was so urgently explored by artists and writers in the post?war climate of Europe. It was only logical that Mehta, who shared similar struggles with the self, would be drawn to this philosophy in his art. Poet and art critic Dilip Chitre cites a review of Mehta's early Falling Figures: "... in the simple act of falling, Tyeb takes us on into a metaphysical riddle. The falling is vertiginous; and metaphorically expresses man's freedom in the very act of infinite questing. It is the adventure of floating alone on a sea of awareness, or getting sucked, unresisting, down its velvet vortices." (The Link, 20 February 1966, Ranjit Hoskote, Ramachandra Gandhi et al., Tyeb Mehta: Ideas, Images, Exchanges, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2005, p. 326)

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