Tyeb Mehta’s Untitled, 1974, the other artwork estimated to fetch seven figures ($1 million - $1.5 million), returns to auction after 17 years, when it was sold for a tenth, $122,580. He received several awards during his career including the Padma Bhushan in 2007. Famous for his Mahishasuras and falling figures, Mehta’s images speak of unspeakable violence and torment. Ranjit Hoskote said of this pivotal period, "Mehta appears to have returned to the theme of the Mother Goddess which has preoccupied him. In 2005, he secured a place in the history of the art market by becoming the first Indian artist to have a work sell for over a million dollars. Unlike Husain, his lifelong friend Tyeb Mehta was not so productive and ironically, while the former celebrated the Indian life the latter actively challenged it, serving instead as a killjoy and a disturbing reminder of human atrocities. The canvases of Celebration are divided in sharp angles of solid colour. [9], He left for London in 1959, where he worked and lived till 1964. As I recall, his friends SH Raza and MF Husain were also present that night – making it a phenomenal occasion, probably the last time the three stalwarts were seen together. School of Art in 1952, and was part of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, which drew stylistic inspiration from Western Modernism, and included greats of Indian paintings such as F.N. Celebration, a large canvas triptych, became the first most expensive piece of Indian art to be auctioned at Christie’s in 2002 for $300,000. During the years the artist spent in London, Mehta's style was influenced by the expressionist works of Francis Bacon, but while in New York his work came to be characterised by minimalism. A multifaceted personality, he also dabbled in filmmaker and made a mark there. Common themes of his works were trussed bulls, the rickshaw puller, from here he moved to the Diagonal series, which he created through the 1970s, after accidentally discovering it in 1969, when in a moment of creative frustration he flung a black streak across his canvas. In 2002, he purchased Tyeb Mehta’s Celebration, which, at $317,500 (approximately ₹2.3 crore), set a record for the highest price ever paid at auction at the time for an Indian painting. Souza, S.H. [16][17][18] In 2008 one of his paintings sold for $2 million. JFIF `` ExifMM* b j ( 1 r 2 ~ i ' ' PhotoScape2009:07:03 15:58:14 0210 93 R98 0100 Photoshop 3.08BIM ART ART & ARTEFACTS @Tyeb Mehta's Celebration was the first work by an Indian artist 7 07/02/2009 A FotoWare FotoStation x Mehta's Celebration was the first work by an Indian artist to cross Rs 1 crore at a Christie s auction *** Local Caption *** Tyeb Mehta's Celebration was … The hammer fell at Christie's in New York, fixing the price at US $317,500 for Tyeb Mehta's triptych Celebration, and art lovers everywhere opened their eyes a little wider—to take a closer look at this masterpiece, reproduced on the front page of The Times of India on September 24, 2002. Tyeb Mehta was a well known Indian artist, who was known all over the world for his brilliant painting. [20], Mehta's were the first works by a contemporary Indian artist to sell for over a million dollars, and indicated a burgeoning interest in Indian art by the international market; as a result, Mehta became a cultural hero.[19]. He is the inspiration and guide for many artist of the younger generation, making him a kind of national hero. Tyeb Mehta’s Celebration was the first work by an Indian artist to cross Rs 1 crore at Christie’s auction. Though India's art lovers have admired Tyeb Mehta's work for decades, his real moment in the sun came in 2002, when his triptych Celebration became the first Indian painting to sell at auction for over 10 million rupees. Though India's art lovers have admired Tyeb Mehta's work for decades, his real moment in the sun came in 2002, when his triptych Celebration became the first Indian painting to sell at auction for over 10 million rupees. I couldn’t imagine how someone that soft-spoken and gentle could create works pulsating with such forceful, violent energy. [19], Artist Tyeb Mehta dies after long illness, Tyeb Mehta, who weaved metaphor into images passes away, Tyeb Mehta was Indias most expensive living artist, also its finest, 10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T056541, "Christie's First India Auction Offers Lots from The Gandhys' Collection", "Indian Artist Enjoys His World Audience", "Tyeb Mehta painting fetches $1.54 million", "Tyeb Mehta, Painter of Emerging India, Dies at 84", "Tyeb Mehta painting sold for Rs. For handpicked stories every day, subscribe to us on Telegram). She has founded Asia’s first web channel on the arts, Hunar TV. (Raza would spend most of his time in Paris and Husain had soon left for Dubai.). [7] He was brought up in the Crawford Market neighbourhood of Mumbai, populated by Dawoodi Bohras. • (Tyeb Mehta) Celebration is a triptych painting by Tyeb Mehta • A joyful occasion for special festivities to mark some happy event • A joyful occasion for special festivities to mark some happy event • (play) Celebration is a play by British playwright Harold Pinter In 2002, that benchmark was surmounted at Christie’s auction house in New York, when Lot Essay The present painting from 1994 is a seminal work from the Mahishasura series that Tyeb Mehta painted in the 1990s. As a young man, he witnessed firsthand the violence that accompanied India’s partition, an event that was pivotal in the formation of his artistic vision. One could tell that Tyeb wasn’t comfortable with all the attention. Tyeb Mehta (25 July 1925 – 2 July 2009) was an Indian painter. Celebration, like the Shantiniketan triptych done a decade earlier, drew inspiration from the Charak festival, the spring festival of the Santhals. Tyeb’s strategy was simple – he aspired to make peace with violence. That was the clincher. It sold at Christie's for 15 million Indian rupees (US$300,000) in 2002, the highest price a contemporary Indian piece of art has ever sold for in a public auction. His name was at the time new to the masses – they had heard of no one else but MF Husain. Justlast year in December 2014, an untitled work of his auctioned for $2.8 millionat Christie’s – ensuring Mehta remains one of the most expensive artists fromIndia. He held the record for the highest price for which an Indian painting has ever been sold, in a public auction. He liked keeping his works minimal. That single event became the turning point for Indian art. Later, he received his diploma from Sir J. J. The hammer fell at Christie's in New York, fixing the price at US $317,500 for Tyeb Mehta's triptych Celebration, and art lovers everywhere opened their eyes a little wider—to take a closer look at this masterpiece, reproduced on the front page of The Times of India on September 24, 2002. Raza and M.F. True to his innate sense of self, he continued to spend months on one work, living with it, analysing it, criticising it and finally deciding whether to complete or destroy it totally. Thereafter, he visited the New York City, when he was awarded a fellowship from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund in 1968. It coincided with the launch of a book on his entire career. He was part of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, which included F.N. Raza and M.F. On July 2, 2009, Tyeb Mehta suffered a massive cardiac arrest and eventually breathed his last at a Mumbai hospital. Souza, S.H. Nine years ago, the Indian artist Tyeb Mehta set a record when his triptych painting called "Celebration" sold at a Christie's auction for $317,500. He held the record for the highest price for which an Indian painting has ever been sold, in a public auction. 6 2005: One of the paintings of Tyeb Mehta holds the record for being the highest priced Indian painting. He was part of the noted Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group, which included greats like F.N. I was vaguely aware that Tyeb was part of the significant Progressive Artists Group of India, set up in 1947. He liked ‘Mahishasura’ but couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Mehta produced works that are now benchmarks of Indian modernism celebrated today as influential works of Indian art. In fact, each time a new Tyeb piece was introduced to the market, it broke its previous record to create a new one. The sight of a trussed bull being dragged inside a slaughterhouse in Mumbai once moved him to tears. India's highest priced artist gets a call from the income tax department but continues to paint At 22 years, during the partition riots of 1947 in Mumbai, while staying at Lehri House, Mohammed Ali Road, he witnessed a man being stoned to death by a mob, this he not only expressed in a drawing but it was to have lasting impact on his work, leading to stark and often disturbing depiction of his subjects. 1925) Celebration Triptych, signed and dated 'Tyeb 95' middle right Acrylic on canvas 94½ x 202½ in. (This article was first published on 7 July 2015, and has been reposted from The Quint’s archives on the birth anniversary of Tyeb Mehta.). Death & Legacy. Tyeb Mehta Untitled (Figure on Rickshaw) oil on canvas 59 x 47 in. 6 2005: One of the paintings of Tyeb Mehta holds the record for being the highest priced Indian painting. He received a fellowship from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund in 1968, also in the same year, a gold medal for paintings at the first Triennial in New Delhi, and in 1974 the Prix Nationale at the International Festival of Painting in Cagnes-sur-Mer,[19] France, the Kalidas Samman, instituted by the Madhya Pradesh Government, in 1988, the Dayawati Modi Foundation Award for Art, Culture, and Education in 2005,[19] and the Padma Bhushan in 2007. [19], In December 2005, Mehta's painting Gesture was sold for 31 million Indian rupees to Ranjit Malkani, chairman of Kuomi Travel, at the Osian's auction. That made it the highest price ever paid by an Indian for a work of Indian contemporary art at auction in India at the time. [10] He also remained an Artist-in-Residence at the Santiniketan between 1984–85, and returned to Mumbai with significant changes in his work. Tyeb Mehta (1925 – 2009) is recognised as one of the Masters of the Contemporary Art Movement. Tyeb Mehta Untitled (Figure on Rickshaw) oil on canvas 59 x 47 in. [14] In May 2005, his painting Kali sold for 10 million Indian rupees (approximately equal to 230,000 US dollars) at Indian auction house Saffronart's online auction. Representing the battle of good and evil, creation and destruction, the 1989 canvas by Tyeb Mehta is the largest of the only three standing figures painted by the artist. [11] He made a three-minute film, Koodal (Tamil for 'meeting place'), which he shot at the Bandra slaughter house, it won the Filmfare Critics Award in 1970. He was frail and sweet. Tyeb Mehta is going under the hammer. In December 2005, his painting 'Gesture' was sold for 31 million Indian rupees at the [13], Tyeb Mehta held the then record for the highest price an Indian painting has ever sold for at auction ($317,500 USD or 15 million Indian rupees) for Celebration at Christie's in 2002. Tyeb Mehta (25 July 1925 – 2 July 2009) was an Indian painter. Read more about Lunch with BS: Tyed Mehta on Business Standard. But that was about it. Unlike Husain, his lifelong friend Tyeb Mehta was not so productive and ironically, while the former celebrated the Indian life the latter actively challenged it, serving instead as a killjoy and a disturbing reminder of human atrocities. Husain, and the first post-colonial generation of artists in India, like John Wilkins who also broke free from the nationalist Bengal school and embraced Modernism instead, with its Post-Impressionist … His voice was affected by thethroat operations he’d undergone but the language of his brush continued to produceworks that haven’t quenched the blue chip art market’s hunger even today. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Celebration (painting)) Celebration is a triptych painting by Tyeb Mehta. Celebration, a triptych by the veteran artist from the collection of the Times of India Group, is the highlight Tyeb Mehta’s painting from 1999, Untitled (Falling Bull) is a virtuosic celebration of the iconic subjects and symbols that embody the oeuvre of this modern master. Tyeb Mehta The man who celebrated Mahishasura and torched a new high at Christie’s with Times of India’s Celebration. In December 2005, his painting 'Gesture' was sold for 31 million Indian rupees at the (Source: Express Archives) Who is Tyeb Mehta? Tyeb Mehta spent most of life in Mumbai and later in life stayed at Lokhandwala, Mumbai. Read more about Lunch with BS: Tyed Mehta on Business Standard. 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;[citation needed] his other noted works were the 'Diagonal Series', Santiniketan triptych series, Kali, Mahishasura (1996). [4][5][6], Tyeb Mehta was born on 26 July 1925 in Kapadvanj, a town of Kheda district, the Indian state of Gujarat. Eventually though, we all woke up to this gem amongst us. Born on July 25, 1925, Mehta was raised in Kapadvanj, a town situated in the Kheda district of Gujarat. Tyeb Mehta, Kali. He evolved a style and imagery which can easily be termed ‘Indian Expressionism’. Tyeb Mehta was an Indian artist known for his paintings of figures set amidst diagonal shapes of color.The artist’s combination of abstracted and expressionistic elements was influenced by the work of both Francis Bacon and Barnett Newman, while the subject matter of falling bodies and religious motifs seen in his painting Kali (1989), came from his childhood recollections of violence. He died on 2 July 2009 at a Mumbai hospital following a heart attack. [21] He is survived by his wife, Sakina, their son, Yusuf, and daughter, Himani and a number of grandchildren. Husain. There was a brief lull till another Tyeb painting ensured the Indian art market broke into the million-dollar club – effectively putting India on the global art map. In fact, when Tyeb Mehta moved to Delhi from London, it was Virender who gave him a small place to stay in exchange for a work of art every month. Tyeb Mehta’s Celebration was the first work by an Indian artist to cross Rs 1 crore at Christie’s auction. No surprises then that he created just about 200 paintings in his entire career. Tyeb’s auction records since have been unconstrained. He made a three-minute film, Koodal (Tamil for 'meeting place'), which he shot at the Bandra slaughter house, it won the Filmfare Critic… Tyeb Mehta (26 July 1925 – 2 July 2009) was an Indian painter, sculptor and film maker. Tyeb Mehta’s childhood tryst with violence marks his paintings in a most beautiful and poignant way. ... Celebration, a large canvas triptych, became the … His paintings were mostly about falling figures, Kolkata’s manual rickshaw-pullers and the trussed bull. Tyeb Mehta’s Untitled, 1974, the other artwork estimated to fetch seven figures ($1 million - $1.5 million), returns to auction after 17 years, when it was sold for a tenth, $122,580. It was his triptych painting Celebration that, on being sold for 15 million Indian rupees … He left for London in 1959, where he worked and lived till 1964. 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