Page 18 - Jehangir Sabavala - TheArtsTrust

shapes and then reconstructing it to create an bolder, preferring a central focus.
image all his own. He sought to strike a balance With this, he seemed to achieve
between sensory perception and conception. revelry reeled in by discipline.
Sabavala was now looking to favour the Although he required a skeletal
symbolism behind the people, landscapes and structure of patterns in his work,
cityscapes he was depicting without paying he began to adorn them with the
as much heed to what was academically romantic that resided in him, bringing
correct. He actively sought to push genre together his own contradictions. One
to the background and bring the theme he such example, where one can witness
was working with to the forefront. the Cubist adherence loosening, is
While his earlier paintings ‘Cobra Lilies’, a still-life that presents
showcased a sort of dedication to genre, Sabavala’s romanticism.
this decade would signal that his true The year 1962 was important, for
passion lay in finding an underlying he discovered that he was plateauing in
theme that pervaded his work. This his art. Although he had stripped back
was also when he began to search for much of his work using the techniques
a unique visual syntax that he could that Cubism provided, he still wanted to
call his own. He began to cast aside showcase motifs that were dear to him. His
his need for perfection—owing to his work then hung on the precipice of becoming
academic training—to finally take decorative and irrelevant to the real world. To Sabavala and Shirin with
daughter Aafreed
more experimental risks, be more the Indian sensibility, Cubism did not hold as
flexible and, in Richard Lannoy’s much meaning and soon became a stylistic ideal
words, achieve a certain ‘plasticity’. rather than a significant choice. Charles Fabri,
His images became sharper and Hungarian art historian and archaeologist and

an influential figure in Sabavala’s India encouraged him to take up landscapes.
life, questioned him on his sub- While his previous works were a collage of
Cubist art and what lay beyond it, geometric forms, the works of this time were
thus prompting the artist to look at distinctly subtle yet skilful, showcasing the
whether he could push the Cubist thick impasto fading into gradation of colour,
motif to become more emotional. and the outlines becoming faded, leaving
During this time, he was space for light to make its way into his
also inspired by Lyonel Feininger’s work. The heavy-handedness was
explorations of cloud, boat and sea abandoned and the focus shifted to
through depictions of light, as well as depicting the universal. His penchant for
the works of J M W Turner. Focusing displaying light at its dramatic finest can
on the source of light and its effects, he be seen throughout the 1960s, especially
began to showcase a certain restraint, in his work ‘The Sky Like A Furnace
while featuring a central image such as Burning’, which sets the air ablaze and
huddled figures, a geographical elevation seems to have been lit from within.
or a gathering of trees. His palette, too, Feeling restrained by his education in
became more subdued, which granted his various art techniques, he felt liberated
works a more contemplative touch and a soft in his choice of landscapes. He was
radiance. Evidence of this is ‘The Air Full Of finally able to make the image take
Soft Imaginings’ from 1964, which serves as on any form he chose.
a precursor to works that were enveloped by
an airiness, buffeted by his learned techniques. The Mystique Evolves
Sabavala in the From 1962 to 1965, Sabavala’s canvases Now, both the construct and the
mid-1960s evolved alongside him, as his travels through feeling of his paintings were in

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