Tyeb Mehta: Life and Art

Speakers: Gieve Patel, Girish Shahane and Mallika Sagar Advani

September 5, 2009 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009) is celebrated as one of India’s finest modernist painters. An alumnus of the J.J. School of Art, Mehta was part of the Progressive Artists’ Group and emerged as a major figure amongst post-colonial modernists. He started his career as a film editor and later joined art school in 1947. The trauma of the Partition left an indelible impact on him and his art was a response to this agonizing experience. By the time he graduated in 1952, the artist had located the primary formal elements in his art: images of falling figures, bulls being slaughtered, rickshaw pullers and martyred victims. In the 1980s imagery of mother goddesses, buffalo demons and Santhal drummers percolated into his work as well. He developed a style and pictorial language that shows influences of both European modernism and Indian miniatures. His avid interest in films led him to make a documentary, Koodal (1970) which won him a Filmfare Critics Award and he also experimented with sculpture. A self-confessed recluse, Mehta’s work has received accolades on both national and international platforms and his life and art is a poignant story of lonely struggle, success and recognition unfettered by the demands of the art market. This memorial event will focus on Tyeb Mehta, the man and the artist, whose astonishing oeuvre made him a legend in the realm of Indian Art.

The panelists include Gieve Patel (artist and poet), Girish Shahane (art critic and writer) and Mallika Sagar Advani (art consultant) who will discuss the diverse layers of the artist’s thinking and practice, whose contribution to modern Indian Art remains unparalleled.