Artworld146;s Most Wanted

8220;I WANTED to be a filmmaker. I never thought I would become an artist,8217;8217; says Tyeb Mehta, in his hoarse, soft voice. 8216;...

8220;I WANTED to be a filmmaker. I never thought I would become an artist,8217;8217; says Tyeb Mehta, in his hoarse, soft voice. 8216;8216;But at the time there was no FTII. 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 world of painting. My teacher Palsekar, and contemporaries like Raza, Padamsee, Husain, drew me in. I realised then that this in itself was a wonderful place to be. After that I have not thought of anything else.8217;8217;

The 77-year-old artist8217;s triptych Celebration, one of the only three such works he has ever done, recently made history at the Christie8217;s auction by fetching nothing less than Rs 1.6 crore. The dust is just beginning to settle after the flurry of excitement created around its sale. But if the artist is excited by this 8216;achievement8217;, it shows only in the ripple of a smile on his otherwise calm persona.

For Mehta, history is something that undergoes a long gestation period. Quite like his paintings, which emerge after much thought. 8216;8216;The trussed bull and the fallen figure in my painting are corollaries, metaphors for the violence I experienced during the Partition, the fall of mankind and the entrapment of the human spirit. The content of my work remains the same, the representation has changed over the years,8217;8217; he says thoughtfully.

The fact that several collectors are scrambling to unearth that one Tyeb painting that 8216;happened8217; to be lying around in their collection and put a new price label on it does not affect him. He continues to paint at his own pace, and word-of-mouth has it that he will not be selling works for a while. Until the market stabilises, that is.

It is a point well appreciated by serious collectors. 8216;8216;It is sad that the only reaction art gets is for its market value. It does not emerge from a genuine understanding of art,8217;8217; says Usha Mirchandani, director of Fine Art Resource,a Mumbai-based gallery. Mirchandani owns a couple of Mehta8217;s works, which she has no intention of selling.

But then, Mehta has never been an artist dictated by the market. 8216;8216;Sometime ago, I had finalised the sale of one of his works and he requested me to leave it with him for a few days more so he could look at it,8217;8217; reveals Mirchandani. 8220;Another time, he was in the process of painting a huge composition, I think of Mahisasuramardini, with a fallen figure. Somewhere along the process, he became unhappy with the figures. He ripped the canvas and started right from the beginning.8217;8217;

8216;8216;I am particular about my compositions and there are an umpteen number of stages my work goes through,8217;8217; confirms the artist, who is currently working on a composition of a fallen figure with a bird. The bird is a new element that has been introduced after much debate.

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No wonder then that the artist8217;s annual output does not rise above 12 paintings. 8216;8216;I do not mean to undermine Tyeb8217;s commitment as an artist but it is a fact that since his works are so few and far between, the demand for them remains high,8217;8217; comments Shireen Gandhy, owner of Chemould Gallery.

Another factor that plays a part in Mehta8217;s pace of work is his health. The stark image of the goddess Kali was the last painting that Mehta completed in 2001, before falling seriously ill. 8216;8216;I have been a heart patient for many years now and yes, it has made working more of a challenge,8217; he says. Another series of unfortunate incidents were the three operations performed on his throat to remove nodules. That led to him losing his voice. 8216;8216;I am not a spontaneous or prolific painter. But I continue to paint, I don8217;t know of anything else,8217;8217; he smiles.

The soft chalk lines appear on canvas. Later filled with paint they become colour fields. Contorted, dynamic, amorphous figures merge. They are the guides Mehta has been following since the 1950s to charter his journey along the lines of fire and angst.

PEER VALUES

M F Husain: For all those who expect me to be India8217;s highest priced artist, all I can say is that the expectations failed. Of course, we must remember that Mehta8217;s triptych is a very large one, 20 feet by 18 feet. And the price matches the size.

Unless the price tag is attached, art will get not the kind of appreciation it needs in the eye of the common man. Indian painting arrived in the 1960s, it is getting its due acknowledgement now.

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When it comes to abstraction, no one comes close to V S Gaitonde and when it comes the figurative, Mehta leads the way. No one compares to these two artists, not me and not anyone else.

Ganesh Pyne: It comes as no surprise that Tyeb Mehta is fetching the highest price among Indian contemporary artists. Even a few years ago, his works were at the top of the market, and now he has done it again.

Mehta8217;s works are completely original, the colours and forms extremely vivid. He has never made decorative paintings. He works on large canvases, deconstructing form in the most intellectual manner. And that makes his works inaccessible to many people. He has a very small and select base of collectors. I have only seen a reproduction of this particular work Celebration and it is excellent. Within the artist community, it is held in high regard.

Jehangir Sabavala: It is very good news for the whole art community. It will affect the national market, which will stabilise prices for other artists as well. Ideally, one would want a good painting to be appreciated because it is good, not for the money power it carries. But that is the way things are and overall, I think it is positive.