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Lot Essay
Shortly after Tyeb Mehta abandoned his expressionistic painting style, (see lots 535 - 536) he began work on a series in which each painting's composition was built around a thick oblique line running right to left, oftentimes rendered over his figures. In these works, the diagonal allows a single figure to adopt different forms on each side. This segmentation of the canvas is continued in works from the early 80s; however, it slowly begins to become less obtrusive as his style matures. According to art critic, Ranjit Hoskote, "the diagonal leads directly to Tyeb's images of the 1980s and 1990s which carried the metaphorical resonances of what I have termed the self-agnostic self: the man and the bull who form the conjoined halves of a tauromachy; Mahisha, who is part buffalo and part god, perennially addressing the Devi, the mother goddess, in combat." (R. Hoskote, Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, 2005, p. 19)
Hindu mythological themes are prevalent in Tyeb's later work. The 5th century text, Markandeya Purana, relates the traditional Hindu tale of the Warrior Goddess Durga slaying the Buffalo Demon, Mahisha. However, Tyeb's interpretation brings to the forefront the ambiguous dichotomies between the masculine and feminine, the divine and mortal, and the human and the bestial, while also conveying a larger Liebestod theme of consummation and destruction. The twisting figures depicted in diagonal planes overlap and blur into each other in a manner that is both violent and overtly sexual. Hoskote notes, "The bodies of the protagonists slip and knot over one another, entwined as though in some exalted act of yogic origami; the disembodiment, the torsion and the inflammation become tropes of war and love." (Tyeb Mehta Paintings, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1998, unpaginated) Tyeb, distilling the highly complex religious themes of this story to a single frame, has recast Mahisha as a sympathetic figure in a seductive embrace with Durga. In his interpretation, both figures are besotted and both fully aware that she will vanquish him. Eventually after ten thousand years, Mahisha is slain by Durga. However, Mahisha's prior acts may also be seen in a self-sacrificial light, and as a general metaphor for the spiritual transformation that comes as a result of union with the divine.
Hindu mythological themes are prevalent in Tyeb's later work. The 5th century text, Markandeya Purana, relates the traditional Hindu tale of the Warrior Goddess Durga slaying the Buffalo Demon, Mahisha. However, Tyeb's interpretation brings to the forefront the ambiguous dichotomies between the masculine and feminine, the divine and mortal, and the human and the bestial, while also conveying a larger Liebestod theme of consummation and destruction. The twisting figures depicted in diagonal planes overlap and blur into each other in a manner that is both violent and overtly sexual. Hoskote notes, "The bodies of the protagonists slip and knot over one another, entwined as though in some exalted act of yogic origami; the disembodiment, the torsion and the inflammation become tropes of war and love." (Tyeb Mehta Paintings, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1998, unpaginated) Tyeb, distilling the highly complex religious themes of this story to a single frame, has recast Mahisha as a sympathetic figure in a seductive embrace with Durga. In his interpretation, both figures are besotted and both fully aware that she will vanquish him. Eventually after ten thousand years, Mahisha is slain by Durga. However, Mahisha's prior acts may also be seen in a self-sacrificial light, and as a general metaphor for the spiritual transformation that comes as a result of union with the divine.