Tyeb Mehta: His 'Mahishasura' sold for $1.6 million

Mumbai, Dec 6, 2005
IANS

His 'Mahishasura' sold for $1.6 million at Christie's this year. Yet reclusive and no-frills painter Tyeb Mehta totally shuns publicity.

One of the hottest artists in the country, Mehta belongs to a quiet breed that lets its work speak for itself - and that explains why he has been away from public gaze.

'I have always been a loner and a private person - each artist's temperament is different,' Mehta told IANS in an interview.

In a book titled 'Tyeb Mehta - Ideas, Images, Exchanges' to be released at ITC Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi Dec 9 by Ebrahim Alkazi, the art collector with an epicurean eye, aficionados will get a glimpse into the life and times of the man.

His world, as revealed in the book, goes through his phases - his moments in solitude as well as his inherent artistic quest that remained in its paradoxical state from within and without.

Human emotions like anguish and frustration are reflected in his initial works - images broken with diagonals.

'I needed my isolation to create, I was forever in search of the definite figure,' said the artist of his search 'for the figure I wanted to embody that inward look, for art is not what is outside; it is what comes from within'.

'In those early years, it was a struggle even to live. My wife worked and I spent my time reading and painting,' he added.

The trauma of the subcontinent's partition in 1947 was the initial inspiration. 'That made me choose my image.'

In the process, he developed a style and pictorial language that remains till this day. His work, language and approach to art are universal.

'I don't work on events but prefer to create an image which becomes a metaphor,' he explained.

Mehta was born in Kapadvanj, a small town in Gujarat, in 1925. He spent his initial years as a film editor but his interest in art took him to the J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, from where he obtained a diploma in 1952.

'I always wanted to be a filmmaker. I never thought I would become an artist,' said Mehta in his soft voice. 'But at the time there was no FTII (Film and Television Institute of India at Pune). So I joined the J.J. School of Art with the intention of doing art direction.

'Suddenly, I found myself being pulled into a whole new world of painting. My teacher Palsekar and contemporaries like Raza, Ram Kumar, Gaitonde and (M.F.) Husain drew me in. I realised this was a wonderful place to be. After that, I have not thought of anything else,' the artist said.

He went to the US on a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1968 - and in 1970 wrote and directed 'Koodal' that won him the Filmfare Critics' Award. He wrote a script on Mahasweta Devi's novel 'Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa'. He now lives and works in Mumbai.

Mehta's paintings emerge after much thought.

'The trussed bull and the fallen figure in my painting are corollaries, metaphors for the violence I experienced during partition. The content of my work remains the same, the representation has changed over the years,' he offered thoughtfully.

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Tyeb Mehta's painting fetches $1.54 million

September 22, 2005

Indian artist Tyeb Mehta set a new record when his painting Mahishasura was bought by a private collector of Indian origin for a whopping $1.584 million at a Christie's auction in New York on Wednesday.

The collector, who lives in the United States, bid over the telephone to bag the painting. This is the highest-ever amount to be paid for a piece of contemporary Indian art.

The purchase price was far in excess of the pre-sale estimate of $600,000 to $800,000 for Mehta's painting.

The price also eclipsed the previous record for an Indian artwork set on Tuesday at Sotheby's Indian sale, when $396,800 was paid for Ram Kumar's painting Untitled.

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Christie's said in a statement that this the first time that a contemporary Indian painting fetched more than $1 million.

Mumbai-based 80-year-old Mehta's Mahishasura is said to be a work in karmic origami depicting the Hindu tale Goddess Durga slaying the demon Mahishasura. But Mehta has depicted Mahishasura a sympathetic figure embracing the goddess symbolising the demon's transformation after uniting with the divine.

Mehta is part of the Progressive Artists Group which draws inspiration from European masters but interprets Indian themes. He is said to be a very meticulous artist and is not as prolific as Indian master M F Husain.

Christie's, the world's leading art auction house, is also planning to reopen its Mumbai office and has named Ganieve Grewal as its permanent representative in India.

Christie's had opened its Mumbai office in 1995, but closed it down last year.