84-85 / 168
84
85
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION,
NEW DELHI
46
TYEB MEHTA
(1925 ‒ 2009)
Falling Figure
Signed and dated ‘Tyeb 65’ (lower right)
1965
Oil on canvas
70.75 x 47.25 in (180 x 119.9 cm)
Rs 5,00,00,000 ‒ 7,00,00,000
$ 746,270 ‒ 1,044,780
PROVENANCE:
Kumar Gallery, New Delhi
Born in Gujarat in 1926, Mehta was raised in Bombay
and spent his summers at his grandmother’s home in
Calcutta—a city where he encountered the figure of the
rickshaw‒puller, a subject he would return to several times
throughout his artistic career. After he finished school,
Mehta joined a film studio specialising in documentaries
as an assistant in 1945. Two years later, the political
circumstances of India’s independence and the Partition
that followed, made it difficult for Mehta to continue
working there. With communal riots dividing Bombay,
it was dangerous for someone like Mehta, who lived in a
known Muslim quarter, to cross what had then become
hostile areas of the city. This tragic period in Indian history,
experienced intimately by the artist, played an important
role in the overarching existential quest of his lifework.
Mehta joined the JJ School of Art the same year, and
graduated in 1952. During this time, he became associated
with the Progressive Artists’ Group, helmed by K H Ara, F N
Souza, S H Raza andMF Husain. Their rejection of academic
realism in art and affinities towards Western movements
mirrored his own interests. For the next few years, Mehta
travelled to London, Baroda, Delhi and Bombay.
Lineage and Authenticity Certificate from Krishen Khanna
EXHIBITED:
Solo Show
, New Delhi: Kumar Gallery, 1966
First Triennale India
, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 10 February
‒ 31 March 1968
India: Myth & Reality, Aspects of Modern Indian Art
, Oxford:
Museum of Modern Art, 27 June ‒ 8 August 1982
PUBLISHED:
First Triennale India
, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1968,
(illustrated, unpaginated)
David Elliott and Ebrahim Alkazi eds.,
India: Myth & Reality,
Aspects of Modern Indian Art
, Oxford: Museum of Modern Art,
1982, p. 22 (illustrated)
Sovon Som and Amit Kumar Mukhopadhyay eds.,
Lalit Kala
Contemporary, Volume 36
, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1990
(illustrated, unpaginated)
Ranjit Hoskote, Ramachandra Gandhi et al.,
Tyeb Mehta: Ideas
Images Exchanges
, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2005, p. 86
(illustrated)
Tyeb Mehta: Triumph of Vision
, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery,
2011, p. 8 (illustrated)
Richard Bartholomew,
The Art Critic
, Noida: Bart, 2012, p. 213
(illustrated)
Celebration 2016, Kumar Gallery: Sixty Years 1955‒2015
,
New Delhi: Kumar Gallery, 2016, p. 195 (illustrated)