Journalism of Courage
On the artists 70th birthday,daughter pays tribute with a show of his rare paintings
Almost three years after he died,artist Manjit Bawa will finally have a long overdue solo exhibition with Delhis Vadehra Art Gallery,which he considered his second home. From August 20,works from Bawas daughters private collection will be on display at the India Habitat Centre in the Capital. The exhibition,organised by Vadehra,has been titled Lets Paint the Sky Red.
This year,he would have turned 70 and I wanted to commemorate that with an exhibition. I wanted to work with a gallery that knew his work well, says Bhavna Bawa.
Bawa was known as the Sufi among artists and his works were culled from a mixture of high modernism and earthy folklore. He always had interesting stories from the oral traditions of India mythology and Bulle Shah. He was a firm believer in the Sufi tradition that promotes love between all beings. Even his more violent works have a sense of peace and equanimity, says Arun Vadehra,remembering the child-like energy and spontaneity of the artist,who laughed easily and loved endless cups of tea.
Vadehra recalls how Bawa had been a frequent visitor to the gallery ever since it opened in 1987. Although we never had his solo,he did participate in a lot of group shows. The truth is that,at that time,we had our hands full with artists such as MF Husain,Ram Kumar and SH Raza, says Vadehra. Bawa has had several solos,including important ones at Sakshi Art Gallery in Mumbai and Kolkata.
While Bawa was lighthearted as a person,his work was quite serious. Art critic S Kalidas writes,Manjit turned to figuration when the whole art scene was leaning towards abstraction. Bawas training in London in graphics gave him the technical acumen to render flat colour with no traces of brush strokes. His floating figure on the placid background is what creates the tension in his work,making them visually powerful.
