Art
Let's Paint The Sky Red: The Art of Manjit Singh Bawa
by RUPINDER KAUR
Let’s Paint the Sky Red, is not just an art exhibition. It is, as the title suggests, a celebration of more than fifty works of the late artist, Manjit Singh Bawa, currently at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India.
This retrospective of his art as well as the release of a book of the same name was held on August 20, 2011.
The exhibition will move tomorrow to the Vadehra Art Gallery, in the Defence Colony, from 1st to 30th September.
The pieces come from the collection of his two children, Bhavna and Ravi Bawa. They are untitled and unsigned and, in this respect as well as many others, they are akin to the murals of Ajanta and Ellora.
They are basically oil on canvas or tempera on paper and are as large as a patio doorway (70”X 95”) or as small as a postcard (7” X 6” ).
Manjit Bawa’s daughter, Bhavan, says he was even “a better person than an artist.”
Talking about her father’s work she said, “His canvases are so harmonious because he was very peaceful from inside.”
Surrounded by his friends, his family, his critics and art lovers he would not have known, these works managed to manifest his presence that evening.
Renowned artist Krishan Khanna spoke a few words about his fellow artist and friend, Manjit Bawa. He recollected moments spent with Manjit Bawa, J. Swaminathan and Mrinalini Mukherjee, while working in the studios of Garhi. He said, “an artist leaves behind a whole body of work - a great heritage - which is on display today.”
Manjit Bawa’s love of music was also shared by his younger sister, Darshan Kaur Sood, who presented a sitar recital dedicated to his memory. Her fingers moved on the strings of the instrument, mesmerizing the audience.
The show is a celebration of the pure ecstasy that is patent in the art of Manjit Bawa. Manjit seems not to have been limited by the physical dimensions of his canvas and its flat monochromatic reality. His fascination with the subcontinent's mythology and Sufi philosophy, specifically their transcendental nature, is reflected in his line and colour. His free floating arabesque figures, both human and animal, literally speak ideas, poetry and freedom. They create a doorway for the transcendental to manifest in the rational, real world.
Manjit Bawa was a modernist master of the figurative genre whose figures reveal his own deeply rooted lyricism and philosophy. His own life as a non-conventionalist finds a perfect voice in the modernist contemporary interpretation he chose to work in.
If you did not know the artist, this opportunity to meet him through his paintings is not to be missed.
The exhibition moves to Vadehra Art Gallery at D - 40, Defence Colony, New Delhi, India, on September 1, where it will continue till September 30, 2011, 11am - 7 pm, Monday to Saturday.
August 31, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), August 31, 2011, 11:41 PM.
Art is a great manifestation of the human mind given to us by the Creator whose own Art is awesome and bewildering, creating galaxies and planets and colourful and beautiful beings on Earth. Art has no boundaries and limitations, just like the Guru Granth Sahib. I am sure all artists like Manjit knew this.
2: Gurdip Kaur (U.S.A.), September 02, 2011, 8:33 PM.
Art in general - any form - is definitely a manifestation of Waheguru. Manjit Singh Bawa was yet another such artistic soul on this earth.