Manjit Bawa
India, 1941 - 2008
Because Manjit Bawa includes gods in his paintings, along with saints, cows, scimitars and bananas, India's art pundits labor hard to parse the myths and mysticism of his iconography. Such people are on the wrong track. "It's not narrative at all," says Bawa, 54. "I virtually forget the whole story that inspired me. It's not myth or a story. It's a painting." His sinuous figures, taken from Hinduism, local legends and even Shakespeare, float against vast backgrounds of a single luminous hue. In a land in which religious tales are passed on through calendar art illustrated by lithography, it is not surprising that such paintings are overinterpreted--or that Bawa has become one of India's most sought-after and widely collected modern artists, commanding up to $16,000 a canvas. A native of Punjab, Bawa studied at New Delhi's College of Art, then pored over silk screens in London in the late 1960s, which introduced him to the joys of bright monochromes. Henri Rousseau and Fernand Leger are influences; Bawa avoids the somber and socially conscious grays and ochers of contemporary Indian painters such as Ram Kumar. His brighter palette has already influenced the younger generation, though few have managed to match Bawa's distinctly Indian radiance. Lives and works in New Delhi.
- 29 December 2008
Person TypeIndividual
