Tyeb Mehta

We authenticate, certify, issue certificates of authenticity (COA), appraise the value and broker the sale of paintings and drawings by Tyeb MEHTA.

Indian

Born: 1925, Karachi, British India (now Pakistan).

Died: 2009, Mumbai, India, aged 84.

He spent most of his life in India, particularly in Mumbai, where he was part of the modernist art scene. He also briefly lived in London in the 1950s, where he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, and this period had a lasting influence on his artistic development.

Typical Subject Matter:

Tyeb Mehta is renowned for his figurative paintings. His subject matter typically focused on human emotions, pain, suffering, and the human condition, often exploring themes of alienation, violence, and social issues. He was deeply influenced by the political climate of his time, and his works frequently reflect an intense engagement with India's socio-political landscape.

Mehta is also known for his recurring motifs, such as the figure of the human body, animals, and symbols of Hindu mythology, reinterpreted through a modernist lens. One of his most famous works, Kali, represents the Hindu goddess in an abstract form, while other works depict figures in motion or distorted, conveying a sense of tragedy and introspection.

While Mehta's early works were influenced by expressionism and the tragic human form, his later works increasingly embraced minimalism, reducing his subjects to large, simplified shapes and broad expanses of colour.

Typical Style:

Mehta is renowned for his bold, expressive use of colour and dynamic compositions. His early works were heavily influenced by European modernism, particularly expressionism, yet he also infused his paintings with Indian symbolism and a unique emotional intensity.

Visually, his paintings are characterized by large, simplified forms and stark contrasts in colour. Figures are often depicted in a fragmented, disjointed manner, emphasizing their emotional weight rather than their anatomical precision. Mehta’s use of violent, angular lines and dramatic contrasts of light and dark conveys a sense of tension and psychological conflict.

Mehta's most iconic works feature a striking minimalism in terms of both composition and colour, with a focus on large, flat areas of colour that evoke a sense of space and emptiness. He typically employed bold, saturated colours and thick brushstrokes. He was known for his abstracted figures, which were sometimes outlined with heavy lines.

For his works on paper, he often used fluid, dynamic brushwork that contrasted with his more structured, formal oil paintings.

Typical Material and Media:

Tyeb Mehta primarily worked in oil on canvas. He also occasionally worked with ink and watercolour on paper.

While Mehta’s paintings have become synonymous with large-scale canvases, he also produced smaller-scale works.

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