Important Notice

As an artist of post‒Independence India, Manjit Bawa resisted the dominant currents of abstraction and International Modernism, forging instead a distinctive figurative language. Drawing upon Indian mythology, Sufi philosophy, and Sikh oral traditions, he transformed the human figure into a supple, lyrical form unlike that of any of his contemporaries. His art was a complex amalgamation of eclectic influences—most notably, his technique drew... As an artist of post‒Independence India, Manjit Bawa resisted the dominant currents of abstraction and International Modernism, forging instead a distinctive figurative language. Drawing upon Indian mythology, Sufi philosophy, and Sikh oral traditions, he transformed the human figure into a supple, lyrical form unlike that of any of his contemporaries. His art was a complex amalgamation of eclectic influences—most notably, his technique drew upon Mughal, Rajput, and Pahari miniature painting, as well as silk‒ screen printing, which he studied in London. His narratives emerged from Indian mythology, while the serenity of his luminous colour fields reflected the spirit of Sufism, a philosophy he embraced deeply.

His paintings are instantly recognisable, typically centred around a single tubular figure or compact grouping set against flat, vibrant fields of colour. As Ranjit Hoskote observes, paintings like the present lot “take shape… without a trace of architecture to frame them [...] each form, animal and human, rejoices in its plasticity and libidinal energy, its gymnastic ability to defy the strictures of the anatomist. The rounded contours of each toy‒like figure speak of its prana, the life‒breath that gives it a vital buoyancy, allowing it to occupy rather than be trapped in those flat, glowing, single‒colour fields of red, yellow, green or blue that are Bawa’s hallmark device.” (Ranjit Hoskote, Manjit Bawa: Modern Miniatures, Recent Paintings, New York: Bose Pacia, 2000)

Though deceptively simple in appearance, Bawa’s figures reveal a remarkable sensitivity to form, modelled through subtle gradations of colour. His distinctive treatment of colour and pictorial space renders them weightless and imbues them with an ethereal, otherworldly presence. As Jagdish Swaminathan observed, “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.” (Jagdish 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 present lot, a seemingly simple portrait of a woman, holds within it a world of meanings and possibilities. Without architectural or landscape elements to anchor her, she occupies an ambiguous, almost metaphysical space as she pensively gazes beyond the picture plane. Hoskote notes, “[His] protagonists do not emerge from an imagined background or prop themselves against the wide horizon of an opening world; rather, they manifest themselves suddenly, like apparitions, in a field that could well be an aura.” (Hoskote, 2000)

Deliberately left free from contextual detail, the painting’s appeal lies in its openness to interpretation. As S Kalidas writes, “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.” (S Kalidas, “Let’s Paint the Sky Red: Remembering Manjit Bawa in Art and in Life”, Kalidas, Bawa et al., p. 19)

“Stylisation and figuration cannot be forced or imitated—it flows naturally from an individual premise. At all times it’s your own voice, your signature. As for drama, isn’t it part of one’s life? It certainly is part of mine.” - MANJIT BAWA

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