Manjit Bawa

2006-12-16T06:26:00.000-08:00

Faith, fantasy and fun make up the world of Manjit Bawa
The Hindu

A greater part of my early years was spent in observing nature. As I traveled through the length and breadth of my country, on foot or by cycle, carrying my meager provisions and possessions in my backpack, as a young lad of 14 or 15, I was constantly in communion with nature. It was an intensely joyous experience to wake up to birdsong and sleep under open skies during my travels. Realizing that the magnificent vistas of mountain peaks and desert tracks would blur ultimately and would be no longer as clearly focused as I grew older, I filled sketch books and rough pages with innumerable strokeful landscapes. I still have a few to remind me of that time when our young hearts were bursting with pulsating excitement that energized our art with a life of its own. (full texte by Manjit Bawa)

Manjit Bawa was born in Dhuri in Punjab in 194 1, studied at the College of Art. Delhi, and did his diploma at the London School of Printing, Essex in Silk Screen-Printing. From 1967 to'71 he worked in London as a silk screen printer. A figurative painter from the beginning of his career. Manjit has achieved a summary simplicity of figuration, which is remotely reminiscent of Kalighat Pat's and linear flow and modernist remolding of form we find in Jogen Choudhury. (full article)