"There has to be a certain freshness and newness in one`s art, otherwise it`s pointless to pursue it. To be different means doing something you have never done before." --Manjit Bawa. Manjit Bawa, a well accomplished name in the field of fine arts, was born in a small Punjabi town of Dhuri in 1941. During the initial period of his career he had faced opposition from his family. According to his own words, `my mother would try to dissuade me, saying art was not a means of livelihood. But my spiritual leanings dispelled my fears. I had no qualms. I believed God would provide me with food and I would earn the rest`.
It was his elder brothers who had encouraged him to pursue further with the practice of arts. Between the periods of 1958 to1963, Manjit Bawa studied fine arts at the School of Art, New Delhi. He was trained under the great painters like Somnath Hore, Rakesh Mehra, Dhanaraj Bhagat and B.C. Sanyal. But it was Abani Sen under whose guidance Manjit Bawa developed his artistic talent. Abani Sen was so strict a teacher that he used to ask Bawa to do 50 sketches everyday. Most of them were rejected. As Manjit recalls, "As a result I inculcated the habit of working continuously. He taught me to revere the figurative at a time when the entire scene was leaning in favour of the abstract. Without that initial training I could never have been able to distort forms and create the stylisation you see in my work today".
Later, between the periods of 1964 to 1971, Manjit Bawa had worked as a silkscreen printer in Britain. During that time, he had also received training in fine arts. After returning back to India, he had also faced a crisis just like the other artists. In his own words, "On my return I faced a crisis. I asked myself, `What shall I paint?`" It was quite obvious for him to go with the European style of painting. But he tried to capture the concept of Indian mythology and Sufi (school of Islam) poetry. Manjit Bawa started picking up stories from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas (Hindu mythological and sociological texts). The poetry of Waris Shah (a Punjabi poet) and readings from the Granth Sahib (holy book of the Sikhs) made up the subject matter of his paintings.
Manjit Bawa`s creation can easily be distinguished by their colours. He plays with colours like `the ochre of sunflowers, the green of the paddy fields, the red of the sun, the blue of the mountain sky`. For this reason he is counted one amongst the first painters who broke down the monotony of the dominant grays and browns. True traditional Indian colours like pinks, reds and violet are the prominent hues of his creation. As he conceives, `Bright colours are closer to the heart of most Indians, familiar as they are with these shades`.
Nature also plays a significant role in Bawa`s paintings. When he talks about nature, he says, "I have been almost everywhere - Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat. I would spread a sheet of paper on the ground and draw the countryside. The colours and the simplicity of people I met, fascinated me." His love of spirituality also is portrayed in his vibrant paintings. As said by the artist "I enjoy doing it, for it isn`t decorative and loud. One can use minimum essentials to extract the maximum effect. I was inspired to return to drawing after seeing Michelangelo`s sketches and drawings at an exhibition in Amsterdam, where I had gone for one of my shows. The idea stuck in my mind. I don`t work on demand, but follow my heart and mind, for I feel everything has a time and a place."
He passed away on 29th December 2008. He was in coma for three years after suffering a stroke.
