Mehta,first Rs 1-cr artist,dies

Indias reclusive genius,Tyeb Mehta,passed away at midnight on July 1 at the Asian Heart Institute here.

Indias reclusive genius,Tyeb Mehta,passed away at midnight on July 1 at the Asian Heart Institute here. The painter of Celebration and Mahishasura,two works of art that ushered in the crore-club pricing on art,had been ailing for many years. However,the end came when he developed a chronic chest ailment. Mehta,84,is survived by wife Sakina,daughter Himani,son Yusuf and his daughter-in-law Fatima.

Besides large-size canvases and a few sculptures,Mehta was the first to create waves when his painting,Celebration,was sold at Christies auction in 2002 for the princely sum of Rs 1.5 crore. The artist then topped his own record when Mahishasura went for Rs 1.6 crore in 2006.

Yet,Mehta was the last to capitalise on his fame. He would work on a canvas for months. If I am not happy with the results,I am capable of destroying the work and starting all over again, Mehta once said. That not even a penny earned from the auctions came to the artist,was something Mehta once openly regretted. Others expected the artist to paint prolifically and reap the benefits of a buoyant market,but Mehta refused,and continued to ruminate over his canvases for months on end. But gradually his failing health reduced the hours he could spend in his studio.

The Gujarat-born artist,whose eye for capturing pain was compared to Francis Bacon,had evolved a style that was made up of flat colours and cubist lines. Mehta and his group of contemporaries,The Progressive Artist Group,were known to bring Modernism into Indian art at a time when the nascent nation was struggling with its post-colonial identity. They reinvented the Indian identity through its art.

In a note sent from London,his bereaved contemporary,M F Husain,said: Tyeb Mehta was a great figure in contemporary Indian art. He portrayed the pain of humanity which was so intense. As he said,pain is the only reality,the rest is subject to doubt.

There were some happy memories too. Shireen Gandhy of Chemould Prescott,Mumbai,recalls: If you spent an hour with Tyeb you came back enriched. He was a committed and serious artist whose work and life had so much integrity. But he could also be entertaining. Tyeb never made art with an intention to sell. The boom time passed him by and he didnt really care about it.

Interestingly,Mehta began his tryst with art in a darkened film laboratory. His short films won him the Prix Nationale in Cagne-sur-Mer in 1947. However,he felt his true calling was painting and joined the JJ School of Art the same year. Mehtas big break came in 1959 when he left for London. The Rockefeller Scholarship in 1968 saw Mehta shift studio to the US. Mehta could not resist the pull of India and he returned to Mumbai in the 1980s.

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Having exhibited all over the country and internationally,Mehta was planning a retrospective at the National Gallery of Modern Art here next year. Unfortunately,he did not live to see his big day.