Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Fine Arts | June 2017

71 Manjit Bawa (1941 – 2008) Untitled Oil on canvas, nd Signed ‘Manjit’ on verso 24.0 x 36.0 in (61.0 x 91.5 cm) Provenance Acquired by present owner from Gita Art Gallery, Delhi in 2002, who in turn had acquired the painting directly from the artist Manjit Bawa. INR 2,400,000 – 3,600,000 USD 37,500 – 56,250 His colours are vibrant and complementary, deft juxtapositions of greens and mauves, of reds and magentas and blues and yellows, of flat areas setting off forms softly modelled—not the stroke by stroke structuring of the image but its instant unveiling in animated suspension. As the image is revealed, the backdrop itself becomes the enactment…It is the poignance of this compulsion which gives an animal physicality of Manjit’s ethereal domain, a domain of signification of the dangers lurking around. It is also a domain of kindness, a domain of soft nudgings, of endearments, of wayward graces, of thoughtful pauses and of rest. It makes no false promises, but offers meanwhile the company of wry humour, of a sense of wonder, of compassion. J. Swaminathan from ‘Dogs Too Keep the Night Watch’, in Manjit Bawa . Birla Academy of Art & Culture ExC.1993