Sabavala retrospective

A retrospective exhibition of veteran artist Jehangir Sabavala’s masterpieces created over six decades was organized at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay from November 10 to December 4, 2005. The exhibition was inaugurated by Neena Ranjan, secretary, ministry of culture, Government of India. The retrospective included paintings from all the major phases of Sabavala’s career as well as a body of drawings and sketches, many of these unveiled before the public for the first time. In his recent series of work the artist revisits earlier themes but his handling is different, notes a press release.

Sabavala (above) and (below) his 2003 acrylic and oil canvas, They walk alone

Coinciding with the retrospective in Bombay was the release of a new publication The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala authored by Ranjit Hoskote, the curator of the exhibition. Eminent playwright Vijay Tendulkar released the book while Cyrus Guzder, chairman and managing director of AFL Private Limited was the guest of honor. Published by Eminence Designs, this book is an amalgam of a biographical sketch with an art-historical review of Sabavala’s contribution to the domain of Indian art.

Although Sabavala’s archetypal figures and timeless landscapes are his distinguishing features, as writes Hoskote, "Classicist though he is, Sabavala has loosened up in his recent work. He has pitched his palette higher, delighting in bright, efflorescent and even fluorescent colors. He has opened up his frames, more accustomed to pictorial meditations on lakes and oceans, to include the concrete and glass reality of Bombay’s skyscrapers.”

For this retrospective Sabavala found the rounding of his cubist paintings, collected the world over, to be an ordeal but felt his efforts were worthwhile: "After all it’s a nationwide honor and more precious to me than another show in New York,” Sabavala was quoted in The Times of India of October 23, 2005. "The market is important but it’s not the be-all and end-all of art,” conveyed the artist.

Recitation of poems, film and slide shows with musical arrangement were the other highlights of the retrospective exhibition. A similar retrospective of Sabavala’s work is planned in New Delhi from January 15 to February 15, 2006.