Let’s Paint the Sky Red is a celebration of the sheer bliss (ananda) that marked the art of Manjit Bawa. It is also, an exhibition and a catalogue of works from selected periods of his remarkably multi-faceted and eventful life that blazoned across the Indian art scene as modernism’s last comet. Delving deep into the Indian tradition though well informed of western modernism, Bawa’s allegorical works turn pure colour into voluminous spaces inhabited sparsely (often singly) by men, women, acrobats, animals, gods and goddesses in frozen moments of dramatic gesture imbued with a range of emotions – wit, humour, elation, pathos or parody. Yet, in his thought or his work Bawa did not specially privilege either man or modernism. As J. Swaminathan wrote, “What makes Manjit’s work contemporary is its remoteness from the everyday present. His concern is not so much like that of the modernists with the fate of man in time as with the enigma of his very presence.” Or, as Manjit was himself fond of quoting from the Punjabi sufi poet Bulleh Shah (1680–1757): “They keep awake at nights and are called saints. Dogs too keep night-watch. How are you better, my friend?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Manjit Bawa
Manjit Bawa (1941 - 2008) was born in Dhuri, Punjab. He studied at the School of Fine Arts, Delhi Polytechnic (1958 - 1963) where his professors included Somnath Hore, Rakesh Mehra, B.C. Sanyal, Dhanaraj Bhagat, and most importantly Abani Sen. Between 1964 - 1971 he travelled to England where he worked as a silk screen printer. Soon after his return to Delhi he taught at the College of Art, Delhi and later set up a silkscreen workshop and worked at the Garhi Studios. Bawa was also an avid flautist; he learnt to play from maestro Pannalal Ghosh, and played with Sufi singer Allan Faqir and Madan Gopal Singh in honour of Pandit Ravi Shankar at the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta in 1996.
During 1967-71, Bawa had one-man shows in London and St. Sebastian in Spain. In 1976 he participated in ‘Nine Artists’, a group show at Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi, and soon after in ‘Roopankar’, the inaugural exhibition at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal in 1978. Since then he has taken part in several group shows including ‘The Poet and the Painter’ at CCA, New Delhi (1991), ‘Trends and Images’, CIMA, Kolkata (1993), ‘India Sings’ at the New South Wales Museum, Australia, ‘Chamatkar’ organized by CIMA in London (1996), ‘Munro Glass Sculptures’ at Mumbai and Delhi (1998), ‘In Transit III’ with Ravinder Reddy, organized by Sakshi Gallery at Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin (2003) and ‘The Margi and the Desi’ at Gallery Espace (2004). His has held solo shows at Bhopal, Delhi, Santiniketan, and recent shows include ‘Bhav, Bhaav, Bhavya’ at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai (1999), ‘Heads’ organized by Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, and ‘Mapping the Conscious 1980-2004', Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi (2005). He has been honoured at the 1st Bharat Bhavan Biennale, Bhopal (1986), and received the Sailoz Mukherjee Prize in 1963. In 2002 ‘Meeting Manjit’, a film by Buddhadeb Dasgupta received the National Award for Best Documentary.
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