3. TYEB MEHTA’S WORKS
Among his most noted later paintings were his
triptych celebration , which when sold for Rs. 15
Million($ 317, 500) at a Christie’s auction in 2002,
was not only the highest sum for an Indian painting
at an international auction, but also triggered the
subsequent great Indian art boom; his other noted
works were the ‘ Diagonal Series’, shantiniketan
triptych series, Kali, Mahishasura(1996).
4. Tyeb Mehta said that the violence he observed
during postcolonial partition of India and Pakistan
was a strong influence on his art.
5. Tyeb Mehta’s resplendent images , his falling
figures , trussed bulls, shamanic women, and
Rickshaw- puller fused with their soul- destroying
vehicles ,had already won critical acclaim. Besides
the critical acclaim had come couched in the
colonised idiom then still current: to many, Tyeb
Mehta was the ‘Indian Bacon’, condescending
label given the palpable difference between the two
masters.
6. Bacon’s screaming popes and twisted models are
painted in their human fallibility, ruthlessly rendered
as though in the body’s effluents, in spittle, sweat
and semen. By contrast, Tybee Mehta’s figures are
painted in radiance, in luminous, smoothly brushed
colour that transforms the death. Marked bull into a
symbol of resistance, the plunging body into a
creature redeemed from gravity.
7. His images became more refined and icon-like , but
reverberated deeply with the intimations of violence
and renewal that came into his studio from the
streets and hinterlands beyond: the all- devouring
Kali, the frenzied drummer, the goddess battling the
buffalo demon.
8. AWARDS RECEIVED
John.D. Rockfeller 3rd fund in 1968.
Gold medal for paintings at the first triennial in New
Delhi.
In 1974 the prix nationale at the international
festival of paintings in Cagnes-Sur-Mer,France.
Kalidasa sanmman – Madhya Pradesh
government.
Dayawati Modi fund award in 2005
He was awarded with pdm.Bhushan in 2007 by
government of India.
His film ‘Koodal’ was awarded the filmfare critics
award in 1970.
