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Lot Essay
Manjit Bawa’s works on paper display his mastery as a draftsman. Even on the large-format, brightly colored canvases for which the artist is renowned, he starts work with the critical step of composing the image with a pencil, and only then building it up in color.
Bawa's drawings like the present lot are marked by the artist’s confident line and simplified forms, conveying movement and narrative with only the most subtle details. These works champion the elegance of line in his depictions of the animals and mythological figures that lie at the heart of his practice. The present lot is a rare example in terms of its ambition and scale, depicting a cowherd playing a flute among his attentive herd of animals. Based on the iconic scene of Lord Krishna playing his flute to an audience of cows, a subject Bawa returned to several times in his practice, this work consciously avoids the trappings of direct narrative, excluding the usual markers that identify the youthful deity, the fastidiously decorated pastoral landscapes he typically occupies, and the adoring gopis that are frequently depicted around him. Bawa condenses his forms to focus on a non-specific image, leaving the rest to suggestion and the viewer’s imagination.
The present lot conjures a window into a world of myth, mysticism and magic. Bawa’s virtuosic use of light and shade to render his subjects resonates with potency. At the same time, there is a delicate quality to the work seldom seen in Bawa’s large, vivid paintings, allowing viewers to blur the real and the spiritual and revel in the same sense of wonder that the artist does.
Bawa's drawings like the present lot are marked by the artist’s confident line and simplified forms, conveying movement and narrative with only the most subtle details. These works champion the elegance of line in his depictions of the animals and mythological figures that lie at the heart of his practice. The present lot is a rare example in terms of its ambition and scale, depicting a cowherd playing a flute among his attentive herd of animals. Based on the iconic scene of Lord Krishna playing his flute to an audience of cows, a subject Bawa returned to several times in his practice, this work consciously avoids the trappings of direct narrative, excluding the usual markers that identify the youthful deity, the fastidiously decorated pastoral landscapes he typically occupies, and the adoring gopis that are frequently depicted around him. Bawa condenses his forms to focus on a non-specific image, leaving the rest to suggestion and the viewer’s imagination.
The present lot conjures a window into a world of myth, mysticism and magic. Bawa’s virtuosic use of light and shade to render his subjects resonates with potency. At the same time, there is a delicate quality to the work seldom seen in Bawa’s large, vivid paintings, allowing viewers to blur the real and the spiritual and revel in the same sense of wonder that the artist does.