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拍品专文
In 1979, Jehangir Sabavala commented on the nature of his creative process, saying that painting for him was "an unceasing battle to achieve perfection." (Artist Statement, For You: The Magazine with a Mind, November 1979, p. 34) Although the artist's quest for constant reinvention and perfection was one that lasted over the course of his career, the mid 1970s marked an important accomplishment in his struggle. It was during this period that Sabavala's control of structure, colour, light and texture reached an apogee of sorts, bringing him closer to the perfection he sought than ever before, and leading to the creation of some of his most refined land and seascapes.
Ranjit Hoskote describes these landscapes as "visionary", noting that in them, "Sabavala, in quest of the sublime, orchestrates a breath-taking interplay of his austere, geometricising stylisation and that opulent, sensuous understanding of colour, that chromaticism which is his forte. The high-keyed palette subsides; the structure achieves an optimal balance between abstraction and representation, a summation of the streams that have poured into his art." (R. Hoskote, The Crucible of Painting, The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai, 2005, p. 107)
The foundations of these complex constructions lie in their subtle linear schema. Evolving from detailed studies in Sabavala's sketch books, these horizontals and verticals, points of focus and perspective, divide and define the picture plane, bestowing the image with a sense of structure. This 'map' is then brought to life by the artist's subtle palette, which effortlessly negotiates entire families of tones and micro-tones to give rise to vistas that are at once restrained and emotionally charged. According to critic, Pria Devi, Sabavala's palette of the 1970s is not as "high-pitched" or deep and "rich" as it was in previous decades. Instead, it "softens and modulates a blend of warm and cool so understated that 'high' colour disappears altogether [...] The act of pigmenting bridges from conceptual notation to sensuous-emotional chromatic response." (P. Devi, Jehangir Sabavala , New Delhi, 1984, p. 9)
Titled The Green Cape, this 1974 canvas is both quiet and dramatic in its celebration of nature and beauty, two ideals that Sabavala has always held in high regard in what otherwise seemed a hardened world. In this painting, the artist applies almost translucent layers of paint in precisely gradated wedges to portray a tranquil coastal panorama from a slightly elevated and distanced perspective. As the blush band of sky at the horizon gives way to the heavier grey-blue of dusk, a few shrouded figures on the sandy, crescent-shaped promontory seem to silently pay their respects to the land, sea and sky before them. Whether fugitives or pilgrims, these anonymous figures are fully aware that their journey, much like the artist's own, will never be complete.
Albeit inspired by the artist's travels along India's western coastline, Sabavala's landscapes like this one transcend geographic and chronologic location. Developing on themes he explored in earlier paintings like 'The Green Isthmus' of 1967, this landscape places the viewer "at a crossing, a point of transit between the ephemeral and the eternal: the conditions know to Sanskrit thinkers as iha and para, hereness and beyondness [...] this consummation of opposites gives birth to a beauty - the world itself, outright - that is at once inviting and forbidding. It makes us go in awe of his universe." (R. Hoskote, The Crucible of Painting, The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai, 2005, p. 113)
Sabavala also intends these paintings to be catalysts, bringing to the fore emotions and expressions that might otherwise have been suppressed. "Over the years I have found myself irresistibly drawn to the still, solitary world of the bare landscape, of ridge and dune, of sea and sky and light, where the elements reign and act as the catalysts of sensations and fantasies that emanate from within." (Artist statement, "From An Artist's Notebook", For You: The Magazine with a Mind, Mumbai, November 1979, p. 34)
Ranjit Hoskote describes these landscapes as "visionary", noting that in them, "Sabavala, in quest of the sublime, orchestrates a breath-taking interplay of his austere, geometricising stylisation and that opulent, sensuous understanding of colour, that chromaticism which is his forte. The high-keyed palette subsides; the structure achieves an optimal balance between abstraction and representation, a summation of the streams that have poured into his art." (R. Hoskote, The Crucible of Painting, The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai, 2005, p. 107)
The foundations of these complex constructions lie in their subtle linear schema. Evolving from detailed studies in Sabavala's sketch books, these horizontals and verticals, points of focus and perspective, divide and define the picture plane, bestowing the image with a sense of structure. This 'map' is then brought to life by the artist's subtle palette, which effortlessly negotiates entire families of tones and micro-tones to give rise to vistas that are at once restrained and emotionally charged. According to critic, Pria Devi, Sabavala's palette of the 1970s is not as "high-pitched" or deep and "rich" as it was in previous decades. Instead, it "softens and modulates a blend of warm and cool so understated that 'high' colour disappears altogether [...] The act of pigmenting bridges from conceptual notation to sensuous-emotional chromatic response." (P. Devi, Jehangir Sabavala , New Delhi, 1984, p. 9)
Titled The Green Cape, this 1974 canvas is both quiet and dramatic in its celebration of nature and beauty, two ideals that Sabavala has always held in high regard in what otherwise seemed a hardened world. In this painting, the artist applies almost translucent layers of paint in precisely gradated wedges to portray a tranquil coastal panorama from a slightly elevated and distanced perspective. As the blush band of sky at the horizon gives way to the heavier grey-blue of dusk, a few shrouded figures on the sandy, crescent-shaped promontory seem to silently pay their respects to the land, sea and sky before them. Whether fugitives or pilgrims, these anonymous figures are fully aware that their journey, much like the artist's own, will never be complete.
Albeit inspired by the artist's travels along India's western coastline, Sabavala's landscapes like this one transcend geographic and chronologic location. Developing on themes he explored in earlier paintings like 'The Green Isthmus' of 1967, this landscape places the viewer "at a crossing, a point of transit between the ephemeral and the eternal: the conditions know to Sanskrit thinkers as iha and para, hereness and beyondness [...] this consummation of opposites gives birth to a beauty - the world itself, outright - that is at once inviting and forbidding. It makes us go in awe of his universe." (R. Hoskote, The Crucible of Painting, The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai, 2005, p. 113)
Sabavala also intends these paintings to be catalysts, bringing to the fore emotions and expressions that might otherwise have been suppressed. "Over the years I have found myself irresistibly drawn to the still, solitary world of the bare landscape, of ridge and dune, of sea and sky and light, where the elements reign and act as the catalysts of sensations and fantasies that emanate from within." (Artist statement, "From An Artist's Notebook", For You: The Magazine with a Mind, Mumbai, November 1979, p. 34)