Untitled (Head)

The result of Tyeb Mehta's encounter with European Expressionism on a visit to England in 1959 resonates in the present painting from 1960-61. The solemn sitter is portrayed with muted colours and thick gestural impasto so quintessential to his Western contemporaries. In Mehta's works of the 1960s, "[...] the thickly stroked paint would layer the surface with a heavy patina of disquiet. The rendering of colours, of equal tonality and applied in verisimilitude, provided a cohesion, which would yet seem like a fierce interlocking. A compressed battle would ensue also between the figure and the space surrounding it, interpenetrative as two entities, which would coalesce to form an independent relationship, creating a new interpretative reality." (Y. Dalmia, Tyeb Mehta, Triumph of Vision , New Delhi, 2011, p. 5)

Tyeb Mehta persistently engaged with his unique repertoire of figurative images - unceasingly working towards their continual evolution and eventual transcendence. While the stylistic elements of his work and his technique changed over time, Mehta's penchant for depicting solitary figures placed squarely in the centre of the frame remained a constant.

This seated figure is depicted in burnt umber and brown drapery traditionally suggestive of a habit worn by a man of the clergy. Mehta's textured brushstrokes give the figure a sculptural depth and solidity suggestive of Donatello's marble Lo Zuccone now exhibited in Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence a statue famed for its unforgiving realism. Mehta's protagonist, sitting with crossed pale hands, piercing red eyes and a sunken face, this figure radiates a spiritual sublimation. This monk seems deep in thought, stricken by a sense of melancholia and deep gravitas. Untitled (Head) is a quintessential image of the self reflection and emotive solemnity that encapsulates the few works seen from this formative period of Tyeb Mehta.