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In my art, I am a free man: Late architect Jehangir Vazifdar

Late architect and builder Jehangir Vazifdar devised methods for everything, from living his life to painting, learns Ornella D'Souza

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Son Phiroze with two canvases reflecting his father’s diverse painting styles; (Right) Jehangir Vazifdar
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"I design houses in a way others like it, because I have to make a living. But in my art, I am a free man. And so, I don't want to sell my art because I don't need to." the late architect and builder Jehangir Vazifdar would tell son Phiroze, who recently unveiled, Jehangir Vasifdar: Artist and Visionary, a book and art exhibition on his father's modern art paintings at the Taj Art Gallery, a space Jehangir held the first of many exhibitions 50 years ago in 1966. "I want to wake people up to my father's art. He deserves the recognition he didn't get just because he refused to sell his paintings," says Phiroze.

Though unknown as an artist despite a legacy of 10,000 paintings, with one of them finding space alongside MF Husain and Krishen Khanna at the Abby Grey and Indian Modernism, NYU's art exhibition last year, Jehangir was quite the visionary as an architect and builder. He gave Mumbai the iconic Breach Candy Apartments, Sorrento, Eden Hall, Amalfi and Washington House, and set up the Vazifdar College of Building Industries (VCBI).

"He was first to erect buildings at Cuffe Parade in the 60s, when no one was willing to build on reclaimed land," says Phiroze. Also commemorating his love for equestrian races is the annual JP Vazifdar Trophy by the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC).

But on browsing through Jehangir Vasifdar...it's hard to miss the pattern, the method he applied to his life and art. Such as the innumerable art-related 'theories' he came up with to help the viewer intepret his art and changing painting styles.

'Colour Dictionary' assigned a meaning to each colour and their combinations to make the canvas 'readable'. So, white was 'death', grey was 'heaven', and yellowish-green was 'sickness'. 'Alphabet Theory' was what he saw as a logical approach to teaching the English alphabet. Instead of A, he listed I as the first alphabet so that the child first learnt straight lines, then curves, C, and finally a straight-curved combination, B. His black-and-white 'Ultimate Drawing' was an attempt to create forms non-existent in nature. 'Overlap Art' involved sketching on glossies, and 'Futuristic Art' was conjoined, Picasso-ish faces. It's almost as if his paintings got younger, as he got older. "My father never painted to please the eye. He would say, 'Paint to make the viewer use his mind'," says Phiroze, who recalls his father being a disciplinarian even with daily engagements.

Jehangir would leave work at 3.45pm sharp, then visit art galleries, and finally stop at the Taj for half a peg of gin, bowl of wafers and gram. But not before gauging the previous day's purchase from the Taj florist. "According to father, higher sale of flowers meant higher chances of his flats getting sold," says Phiroze. Even granddaughter Michelle Poonawala, director at Intervalue Poonawalla Ltd., recalls a routine to their interactions. "On coming home from school, I'd find him drawing on magazines with a black felt-tip pen. He'd then arrange his sketches up on the sofa and ask me which one I liked best."

But the 'fake-proof' technique, the name because it's impossible to copy, was Jehangir's most loved technique. After completing a portrait, the canvas is given a uniform grey surface. Then, thick diagonal strokes of the canvas are carved out using a foot ruler; the end result – a 2D portrait in thick oils! "Imagine knowing exactly where to carve and stop. He's only told Michelle, my daughter, the secret to this technique," says Phiroze. And Poonawala confesses, "I last practised this technique in 2005. But, after this exhibition, I'm motivated to try it out again."

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