+ Expand

Notes: 'Manjit Bawa's painterly realm is peopled by enigmatic figures - marvelous animals that defy zoology; brooding sages and pensive virgin-goddesses in the mystery of unknown motives, undeclared intentions.' (Ranjit Hoskote, Manjit Bawa, Modern Miniatures Recent Paintings, Bose Pacia, New York, 2000, unpaginated).

Manjit's subjects are often inspired by ancient iconography and myths but his primary concern was not with the narrative of the works but with their spatial and chromatic relationships.

'Standing before these paintings, we realise that Bawa has long been preoccupied with the theme of a universal language of communication. How, he appears to ask, do humans and animals account for one another's presence, share their responses? Bawa's question unveils a deeper disquietude: how can two beings, who share the same physical environment but occupy separate mental universes, compare their respective experiences of the world?' (ibid.)

'... Bawa is more significantly preoccupied with the sheerness of pleasure at the edge of language. His canvases are lambent spaces animated by a relish for colour and volume [...] Colour itself becomes a resonant variety of space: a luminous and neutral field, virtually unmarked by a specific sense of place, in which his isolated dream-figures can operate without labouring under the burden of allegiance to any single history.' (Ranjit Hoskote ibid.).

The artist's use of colour was grounded in his formal training as a silk-screen printer and his study of Rajput and Pahari miniature paintings. The simplicity of line and form is contrasted by the subtle graduation of colour and the artist's use of chiaroscuro. His figures possess a plasticity; sculptural in form yet suspended weightlessly in a space that is void of time and context.