.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A powerful work painted in tones of cobalt blue, grey and black, and further hyphenated by a stark white claw, Tyeb Mehta achieves a tour de force in this painting that is deceptively simple with its flat colour planes and yet marked by a complexity that combines concept, line and composition.
Tyeb Mehta has long had an inclination towards re-interpreting characters from epics and mythologies which often led him to paint composite figures of human and animal. The bird may be seen as morphing into human form representing characters such as Icarus or Phaethon who failed in their quest of flight and union with divinity. In another sense Tyeb's overall series of 'Falling Figures' may also represent the 'Fall of Mankind' from its hubris. These interpretations emanate from Tyeb's strong affinities to Western art and literature. However the birds also appear in the Vedic literature of which the artist was equally versed. Whether it is Garuda who assists the gods in their battles between good and evil or Jatayu who battled Ravana and sacrificed himself to save Sita from abduction, this painting of ambiguous figures in mid-flight fits the imagery of 'doomed heroism' that is also a mainstay of the artist's Mahishasura and Kali series of works. (R. Hoskote, Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, 2005, p. 42)
Tyeb Mehta has long had an inclination towards re-interpreting characters from epics and mythologies which often led him to paint composite figures of human and animal. The bird may be seen as morphing into human form representing characters such as Icarus or Phaethon who failed in their quest of flight and union with divinity. In another sense Tyeb's overall series of 'Falling Figures' may also represent the 'Fall of Mankind' from its hubris. These interpretations emanate from Tyeb's strong affinities to Western art and literature. However the birds also appear in the Vedic literature of which the artist was equally versed. Whether it is Garuda who assists the gods in their battles between good and evil or Jatayu who battled Ravana and sacrificed himself to save Sita from abduction, this painting of ambiguous figures in mid-flight fits the imagery of 'doomed heroism' that is also a mainstay of the artist's Mahishasura and Kali series of works. (R. Hoskote, Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, 2005, p. 42)