Important Notice

"There has to be a certain freshness and newness in one's art, otherwise it's pointless to pursue it. To be different means doing something you have never done before." - MANJIT BAWA

Manjit Bawa's art, like the artist himself, was a sensitive and complex amalgamation of influences that were vast and eclectic. Entirely figurative throughout his career, his work was deeply rooted in poetry and philosophy. For technique, he drew upon... "There has to be a certain freshness and newness in one's art, otherwise it's pointless to pursue it. To be different means doing something you have never done before." - MANJIT BAWA

Manjit Bawa's art, like the artist himself, was a sensitive and complex amalgamation of influences that were vast and eclectic. Entirely figurative throughout his career, his work was deeply rooted in poetry and philosophy. For technique, he drew upon Mughal, Rajput, and Pahari miniatures, as well as silk-screen printing, which he studied in Britain. For inspiration, he dove into stories from Indian mythology, as well as oral traditions of storytelling and Sufi mysticism, thereby achieving a transcendental quality in his works. By absorbing each of these elements, and a rigorous training in figurative drawing at the School of Art in Delhi, Bawa began distorting forms and creating stylisations that were uniquely his own.

Bawa's paintings are easily identifiable, typically depicting precise, floating characters on flat, vibrant colour backgrounds. He associated colour with Indianness, employing a rich palette to counter the sombre tones of British art. "Manjit's figure is at once an assertion of a tradition and its negation. It hardly owes anything to the realism of the West and its expressionistic aftermath...There is a certain bonelessness, a pneumatic quality to Manjit's figure which echoes both folk Pahari painting and the tantric frescoes of Himalayan Buddhism." (J Swaminathan, "Dogs Too Keep Night Watch," S Kalidas, Bhavna Bawa et al., Manjit Bawa: Let's Paint the Sky Red, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2011, p. 36) The artist's experience as a silk-screen printer is also discernible in the uniform tones of his paintings.

Bawa painted humans and animals with equal fluidity, capturing nuances of expression with a few masterful strokes, as one notices in the present lot. The artist has said that his characters are familiar faces from stories, experiences, memories, and the imagination. "As far as the figures are concerned, they are figments and fragments of my dream world. The split figures that remain suspended in space...convey my innermost emotions. Our life is about being suspended in spatial areas, it's about creatures split up." (Artist quoted in "Manjit Bawa in Conversation with Ina Puri," Bhav Bhaav Bhavya: Frames of Eternity, Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery and Synergy Art Foundation Ltd., Kolkata: Impresario and New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 1999, p. 6)

Many of these elements can be seen in the present lot, wherein a tranquil figure gazes into the distance against a flat background. The lines of his body and clothing are rendered in Bawa's characteristic free flowing curves, creating an image that appears to be in "animated suspension. As the image is revealed, the backdrop itself becomes the enactment." (Kalidas, Bawa et al., pp. 36-37) With no indication of time, place or narrative, the figure in the present lot appears eternal, as if he could be part of a historical, or conversely, contemporary setting. "Manjit's art was not so much narrative as it was tersely idiomatic. Short staccato phrases pregnant with as many possibilities as the reader could read into them... Yet, with just the right gesture or a twist of the rubbery body his magical paintings could encapsulate whole Puranic legends and folk tales with a subversive sense of humour." (Kalidas, Bawa et al., p. 19)

The present lot was part of an exhibition titled Pictorial Space: A Point of View on Contemporary Indian Art at the Rabindra Bhavan galleries in New Delhi in 1977-78. The exhibition featured works by a variety of artists including the likes of modernists such as M F Husain, as well as then up and coming artists such as Bawa and Jogen Chowdhury. Jeroo Vakil Mango was one of the many attending the exhibition who then went to acquire the present lot from the same.


JEROO VAKIL MANGO
Jeroo Vakil Mango's journey as an art collector has its roots in a trip to Rajasthan that she had undertaken just before her marriage to Naval Vakil, who was then a partner in one of the leading law firms of India. Her exposure to the colours and sensations of Rajasthan left her wanting to explore the modern art world in greater detail. This was only furthered by Naval’s interest in collecting art as well as attending exhibitions and cultural events, and developing close friendships with Krishen Khanna, Akbar Padamsee, and M F Husain.

The duo's first acquisition together were a couple of Jamini Roys, which eventually expanded into a much larger collection that included works by Padamsee, Khanna, S H Raza, Husain, Satish Gujral, V S Gaitonde, and more.

In fact, Jeroo's first purchase was a work by Khanna from Gallery 59 (owned by Bal Chhabda) that was to be a birthday gift for her husband. Jeroo, who had visited the gallery with Rs 400, was mesmerised by the Khanna painting - which was priced at Rs 1500. She ended up selling off a piece of her jewellery just to make the purchase. Thus began the journey of the both of them gifting works of art to one another, with Naval having given Husain's Man with Horses to Jeroo the same year.

Jeroo's standing within the artist community was so strong that Husain had once called her to ask if he could paint a portrait of her. Jeroo, aware that Husain was flying out to Europe that very night had pushed it off at the time, suggesting that he do this upon his return. While they eventually set up two dates in Mumbai and Delhi for the portrait, Husain failed to appear on either, and the portrait was thus never done.

Besides her journey in art, Jeroo also excelled in sport and business. She, along with Namrata Apparao, won the doubles title in the prestigious Western India tennis championships. She also won the mixed doubles title in the All India championship, along with Joydeep Mukherjee. In addition, she represented India for bridge in the Venice Cup, the world championships for women. In the 1970s, she opened a popular chain of book shops named Danai, eventually operating 11 book shops in Bombay, Poona, Madras, Delhi, and Tirupati.

Even after Naval's untimely demise in 1973, Jeroo continued being an integral part of the art community. She remarried Tony Mango, who was Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of Rallis India - a company he took to new heights - as well as the Consul General for Greece in Bombay in 1965, and continued to buy works of art. She has now passed the baton onto their son, Bahram and wife Arati who continue to follow her footsteps when it comes to their affinity for collecting art.

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