Sabavala is no more. What a sad loss it is indeed for all of us, and not only those connected with the art world.
Jehangir Sabavala is no more. What a sad loss it is indeed for all of us, and not only those connected with the art world. He was a caring human being, apart from being one of the foremost Indian painters in the cubist mould.
Born in Bombay in 1922, Sabavala graduated from The Sir JJ School of arts in 1944 and went on to study at the Heatherley School of Art, London between 1945-47 and then to Paris where he was at the Academic Andre Lhote between 1948 and 1951 and the Academic Julian between 1953 and 1954. He also studied at the Academic de la Grande Chaumiere in 1957.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1977. Sabavala, practising in the modernist mode, creates wedges of paint which form vast, still landscapes. The human form which began to appear in a diminutive form, enveloped in solitude have begun to emerge appear in diminutive form, enveloped in solitude have began to emerge in close-ups and yet retain the distance of a remembered past.
He was a permanent fixture with his wife at gallery Chemould in Mumbai. Dressed in corduroy dark trousers, full sleeves shirt and silk scarf or a shawl, he spoke to one and all giving his complete attention.
He always remembered a nonentity like me by name and once chided me when I asked him about his exhibition saying, “Francis, it is not proper to talk about my work at another painter's show.”
Etiquette. Always.
His work was like that too. Polished, finesse, detailed and a source of inspiration to all of us for 40 years at least. The vast arid landscapes, the diminutive human figures which later strode large in his canvases, the amber, earth colours, the cubic form will always be trademark Sabavala.
They don't make them like him anymore. Fame never reached his head. The only proud accessory he had was his handle bar moustache. Yet he always looked regal, serene like his landscapes and always spoke as silently as his landscapes.
No, as a painter, you will not be missed, Mr Sabavala. You've left behind too big a legacy for that! The exhibitions, the films, the awards, the books, the words are all there.
But as a human being, you will….. Rest in peace, sir.
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