A Sense of Peace

By Georgina Maddox, *Sufi Stories Under Red Sky* - Indian Express - India; Friday, August 12, 2011

Manjit Bawa’s canvases come out of his daughter’s private collection for a rare viewing

Almost three years after he died, artist Manjit Bawa will finally have a long overdue solo exhibition with Vadehra Art Gallery, which he considered his second home. From August 20, works from the private collection of Bawa’s daughter, Bhavna Bawa, will be on display at the India Habitat Centre.

The show, organised by Vadehra, has been titled “Let’s Paint the Sky Red”. It will move to Vadehra Art Gallery’s Defence Colony centre in September.

“This year, he would have turned 70 and I wanted to commemorate this with an exhibition. I wanted to work with a gallery that knew his work well,” says Bhavna.

Bawa was known as the Sufi among artists and his works were culled from a mixture of High Modernism and earthy folklore.

“He always had interesting stories from the oral traditions of Indian mythology and Bulleh Shah. He was a firm believer in the Sufi tradition and even his violent works have a sense of peace,” says Arun Vadehra of Vadehra Art Gallery.

He recalls how Bawa frequented the gallery ever since it opened in 1987.

“Although we never had his solo, he did participate in a lot of group shows. The truth is that, at that time, we had our hands full with artists such as MF Husain, Ram Kumar and SH Raza,” says Vadehra.

Bawa has had several solos, including important ones at Sakshi Art Gallery in Mumbai.

[Picture: Manjit Bawa, Lets Paint The Sky Red. Photo: Vadehra Art Gallery.]