Important Notice

Even as abstraction began to dominate Indian modernism, Manjit Bawa remained almost stubbornly committed to figuration. In his words, “Being a turbaned Sikh from an ordinary middle‒class family was daunting enough but to strike out against the prevalent forces of Cubism and the iconic Klee was to really ask for big trouble and I was hauled up time and again with strict instructions to toe the line. But I remained true to my calling, naturally... Even as abstraction began to dominate Indian modernism, Manjit Bawa remained almost stubbornly committed to figuration. In his words, “Being a turbaned Sikh from an ordinary middle‒class family was daunting enough but to strike out against the prevalent forces of Cubism and the iconic Klee was to really ask for big trouble and I was hauled up time and again with strict instructions to toe the line. But I remained true to my calling, naturally annoying authorities. Even then in those formative years I was haunted by the spectre of mediocrity. I was willing to accept any challenge, but on my own terms. I was obsessed with one driving need – to create my own painterly language.” (Artist quoted in “I Cannot Live by Your Memories: Manjit Bawa in Conversation with Ina Puri”, Let’s Paint the Sky Red: Manjit Bawa, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2011, p. 47)

By the peak of his career in the 1980s, Bawa had developed a singular approach to the human form, defined less by anatomical realism than by an economy of line. His supple, almost boneless figures are depicted through free‒flowing curves and soft gradations of colour, often emerging from vibrant, luminous fields that set them outside of conventional markers of space and context. This distinctive treatment of form and colour was grounded in his early emphasis on draughtsmanship, particularly under the guidance of Abani Sen. Recalling his teacher’s lessons, Bawa noted, “[I never forgot] his scholarly dissertation on the human anatomy. If it’s a figure, he thus decreed—be that of an animal or a human—always start with the leg and then proceed to other areas. Also, his emphasis that we realise the significance of space at all times. His strident query still rings in my ears: ‘Why can’t I see the space behind the model?’” (Artist quoted in Puri, 2011, p. 45)

Bawa’s approach to his art was shaped by two distinct traditions: Pahari miniature painting and silkscreen printing. From miniature painting came an affinity for graceful contours and saturated, jewel‒like hues, while his experience as a silk‒screen printer in the mid‒1960s informed his use of broad, smooth planes of colour. His engagement with Kalighat painting similarly resonated with its simplified forms. Together, these influences enabled Bawa to pare his figures down to their essential elements, giving precedence to line, colour and gesture over narrative.

His subjects were drawn from India’s diverse spiritual and cultural traditions. Sikh by birth, Bawa encountered sadhus, sages and holy men during his travels across India and eventually embraced Sufism. As he once explained, “Sufi saints, mythological figures and poetry became my subjects. It was the India I had experienced from all my travels through my life.” (Artist quoted in Ina Puri, “Blue”, In Black & White: The Authorised Biography of Manjit Bawa, New Delhi: Viking by Penguin Books India, 2006, p. 167)

These elements converge in the present lot, where a tranquil, saintly figure drifts against a deep indigo ground. The folds of his turban and clothing are implied through Bawa’s characteristic free‒flowing curves, while subtle gradations lend volume to his form. Suspended within an uninterrupted field of blue, the figure exists outside any fixed sense of time or place, its identity established entirely through Bawa’s distinctive painterly language. Remarking on the synthesis between Bawa’s formal influences and his own personal vision, critic Kamala Kapoor notes, “The counterpoint between the unbroken spaces of deep background and the unfettered image may at first evoke the norms of classical painting and direct representation but nothing is quite so readable in Bawa’s work. And as the clear associations fade out and the shifts of cognitive boundaries take effect, Bawa’s own virtual reality show, dredged from dreams and memories, translates into visual rewards, magical and transcendent, invocations taken to the point of revelation.” (Kamala Kapoor, “In Transit 3”, Readings: Manjit Bawa, Ina Puri ed., New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 2010, p. 127)

“What makes Manjit’s work contemporary is its remoteness from the everyday present. His concern is not so much like that of the modernists with the fate of man in time as with the enigma of his very presence.”
(Jagdish Swaminathan, “Dogs Too Keep Night Watch,” in S. Kalidas, Bhavna Bawa et al., Manjit Bawa: Let’s Paint the Sky Red, New Delhi: Vadehra Art
Gallery, 2011, p. 37)

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