Tayyab Mehta
Born	(1925-07-26)26 July 1925 [1] Kapadvanj, Gujarat, India
Died	2 July 2009(2009-07-02) (aged 83) [2] Mumbai, India
Nationality	Indian
Field	Painting
Training	Sir J.J. School of Art (1952)
Works	Celebration Kali

Tayyabb Mehta (25 July 1925 – 2 July 2009) was a noted Indian painter. He was part of the noted Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, which included greats like F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain, and the first post-colonial generation of artists in India, like John Wilkins who also broke free from the nationalist Bengal school and embraced Modernism instead, with its Post-Impressionist colors, Cubist forms and brusque, Expressionistic styles.

Among his most noted later paintings were his triptych Celebration, which when sold for Rs 1.5 crore ($317,500) at a Christie’s auction in 2002, was not only the highest sum for an Indian painting at an international auction, but also triggered the subsequent great Indian art boom; his other noted works were the 'Diagonal Series', Santiniketan triptych series, Kali, Mahishasura (1996).^[3] He stayed and worked in Mumbai for much of his life, except for three spells at London, New York, and Santiniketan, each having a distinct impact upon his work. He received several awards during his career including the Padma Bhushan by Govt. of India in 2007.^[4][5][6]

Early life and education[link]

Tayyab Mehta was born in Kapadvanj, a town of Kheda district, the Indian state of Gujarat. He was brought up in the Crawford Market neighborhood of Mumbai, populated by Dawoodi Bohras. At 22 years, during the partition riots of 1947 in Mumbai, while staying at Lehri House, Mohammed Ali Road, he witnessed a man being stoned to death by a mob, this he not only expressed in a drawing but it was to have lasting impact on his work, leading to stark and often disturbing depiction of his subjects.^[4][7]

For a while initially, he worked as a film editor in a cinema laboratory at Famous Studios, in Tardeo, Mumbai. Later, he received his diploma from Sir J.J. School of Art in 1952, and was part of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, which drew stylistic inspiration from Western Modernism, and included greats of Indian paintings such as F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain.^[8]

Career[link]

He left for London in 1959, where he worked and lived till 1964. Thereafter, he visited the New York, US, when he was awarded the Rockefeller Fellowship in 1968.^[9] During the years the artist spent in London, Mehta’s style was influenced by the expressionist works of Francis Bacon, but while in New York his work came to be characterized by minimalism.^[10] He made a three minute film, Koodal (Tamil for 'meeting place'), which he shot at the Bandra slaughter house, it won the Filmfare Critics Award in 1970.^[9] He also remained an Artist-in-Residence at the Santiniketan between 1984–85, and returned to Mumbai with significant changes in his work. Common themes of his works were trussed bulls, the rickshaw puller, from here he moved to the 'Diagonal series', which he created through the 1970s, after accidentally discovering it in 1969, when in a moment of creative frustration he flung a black streak across his canvas.^[4] Later in life, he added 'Falling Figures', and several mythological figures into his work, highlighted by the depictions of goddess Kali and demon Mahishasura.^[11]

Tayyab Mehta held the then record for the highest price an Indian painting has ever sold for at auction ($317,500 USD or 15 million Indian rupees) for Celebration at Christie's in 2002.^[12] In May 2005, his painting Kali sold for 10 million Indian rupees (approximately equal to 230,000 US dollars) at Indian auction house Saffronart's online auction.^[13] A reinterpretation of the tale of demon Mahishasura by Mehta showing goddess Durga locked in an embrace with the demon sold for $1.584 million.^[14][15][16] In 2008 one of his paintings sold for $2 million.^[17]

In December 2005, Mehta's painting Gesture was sold for 31 million Indian rupees to Ranjit Malkani, chairman of Kuomi Travel, at the Osian’s auction. This makes it the highest price ever paid by an Indian for a work of Indian contemporary art at auction in India.^[18]

Mehta's were the first works by a contemporary Indian artist to sell for over a million dollars, and indicated a burgeoning interest in Indian art by the international market; as a result, Mehta became a cultural hero.^[17]

Personal life[link]

Tayyab Mehta spent most of life in Mumbai and later in life stayed at Lokhandwala, Mumbai. He died on 2 July 2009 at a Mumbai hospital following a heart attack.^[19] He is survived by his wife, Sakina, their son, Yusuf, and daughter, Himani and a number of grandchildren.

Awards[link]

He received the Rockefeller Fellowship in 1968, also in the same year, a gold medal for painting at the first Triennial in New Delhi, and in 1974 the Prix Nationale at the International Festival of Painting in Cagnes-sur-Mer,^[17] France, the Kalidas Samman, instituted by the Madhya Pradesh Government, in 1988, the Dayawati Modi Foundation Award for Art, Culture, and Education in 2005,^[17] and the Padma Bhushan in 2007.^[20] His film ‘Koodal’ was awarded the Filmfare Critics' Award in 1970.^[20]

Mehta's work has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, and the Hirshhorn Museum. A career retrospective is scheduled for later 2009 at the National Gallery of Modern Art, in New Delhi.^[17]

Bibliography[link]

• Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges, by Tyeb Mehta, Ranjit Hoskote, Roshan Shahani. Publisher: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2008. ISBN 81-87737-05-0.

Further reading[link]

• Tyeb Mehta, by Georgina and Ulli Beier. Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, 1977.
• Svaraj: a journey with Tyeb Mehta's "Shantiniketan triptych", by Ramchandra Gandhi. Vadehra Art Gallery, 2002. ISBN 81-87737-02-6.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sold! Tyeb Mehta at Christies by Deepak Talwar, Intent Blog, September 24, 2005
• Tyeb Mehta, Tribute site
• Tyeb Mehta- List of Most expensive Indian Paintings
• Tyeb Mehta - Profile

Joachim Beuckelaer (1533–1574) was a Flemish painter.

A native of Antwerp, he studied under his uncle, Pieter Aertsen. Many of his paintings contain scenes of kitchen and markets, with religious allusions in the background. His Four Elements series (as of 2004^[update], in the National Gallery, London) exemplifies this theme on a large scale. Water, for example, shows a fish market selling twelve kinds of fish, representing the twelve disciples of Jesus. Through an archway in the background we can see Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee after his resurrection, making fish appear miraculously in empty nets. Beuckelaer's work was influential on painters in Northern Italy, particularly Vincenzo Campi.

External links[link]

• Web Gallery of Art: Paintings by Joachim Beuckelaer

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joachim Beuckelaer

Arthur Streeton
Tom Roberts' portrait of Smike Streeton, age 24 (1891), held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Birth name	Arthur Ernest Streeton
Born	(1867-04-08)8 April 1867 Mount Duneed, Victoria, Australia
Died	1 September 1943(1943-09-01) (aged 76) Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Field	Painting
Movement	Heidelberg School

Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 – 1 September 1943) was an Australian landscape painter.

Early life[link]

Streeton was born in Mount Duneed, near Geelong, and his family moved to Richmond in 1874. In 1882, Streeton commenced art studies with G. F. Folingsby at the National Gallery School.^[1]

Streeton was influenced by French Impressionism and the works of Turner. During this time he began his association with fellow artists Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts — at Melbourne including at Box Hill and Heidelberg. In 1885 Streeton presented his first exhibition at the Victorian Academy of Art. He found employment as an apprentice lithographer under Charles Troedel.^[2]

Career[link]

Eaglemont camp, Heidelberg[link]

Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889, National Gallery of Australia

′Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide′, 1890, Art Gallery of New South Wales

Spring, 1890, National Gallery of Victoria

In the summer drought of 1888, Streeton travelled by train to the attractive agricultural and grazing suburb of Heidelberg, 11 km north-east of Melbourne's city center. His intention was to walk the remaining distance to the site where Louis Buvelot painted his 1866 work Summer afternoon near Templestowe,^[3] which was, according to Streeton, "the first fine landscape painted in Victoria".^[4] On the return journey to Heidelberg, wet canvas in hand, Streeton met Charles Davies, brother-in-law of friend and fellow plein air painter David Davies. Charles gave him "artistic possession" of an abandoned homestead atop the summit of Mount Eagle estate, offering spectacular views across the Yarra Valley to the Dandenongs.^[5] For Streeton, Eaglemont (as it became known) was the ideal working environment—a reasonably isolated rural location that was still close to the city. The house itself could be seen by visitors as they arrived at Heidelberg railway station.

Streeton spent the first few nights at Eaglemont alone with the estate's tenant farmer Jack Whelan (who posed for Streeton's "pioneer" painting The selector's hut (Whelan on the log), 1890^[6]), and slept upon the floor, the rooms being bare of furniture. The house was "creaking and ghostly. A long dark corridor seemed full of past visions, and out of doors a blurred rich blackness against the sharp brilliance of the Southern Cross .... But tobacco and wine weighed healthily against the darkness".^[4] He descended the hill daily to Heidelberg village for meals before jaunting into the bush with a billycan of milk and swag of paints and canvases. The first artists to paint with Streeton at Eaglemont were the National Gallery students Aby Altson and John Llewelyn Jones, followed by John Mather and Walter Withers. Like Streeton, Withers painted from nature amidst suburban bush around Melbourne, employing earthy colours with loose, impressionistic brushstrokes. By the end of 1888 he became a weekend visitor to the camp.^[7]

About the same time, Streeton met the artist Charles Conder, who travelled down from Sydney in October 1888 at the invitation of Tom Roberts. One year Streeton's junior, Conder was already a committed plein airist, and was heavily influenced by the painterly techniques of expatriate impressionist Girolamo Nerli. Conder and Roberts joined Streeton at Eaglemont in January 1889 and helped make some modest improvements to the house. Despite austere living conditions, Streeton was content: "Surrounded by the loveliness of the new landscape, with heat, drought, and flies, and hard pressed for the necessaries of life, we worked hard, and were a happy trio."^[4] Streeton and Conder immediately took to each other, and Conder considered Streeton "a genius".^[8] Their shared love of South Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon's lyrical verse is revealed in the titles of some of their Eaglemont paintings, including Streeton's romantic gloaming work ′Above us the great grave sky′ (1890, taken from Gordon's poem Doubtful Dreams^[9]). Later, critics would mistake some of the pair's Eaglemont paintings as companion pieces, as both artists often painted the same views and subjects using a high-keyed "gold and blue" palette, which Streeton considered "nature's scheme of colour in Australia".

Two of Streeton's best-known works were painted during this period —Golden Summer, Eaglemont (1889) and ′Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide′ (1890) — each a sunlit pastoral scene of golden-paddocked plains stretching to the distant blue Corhanwarrabul. In 1891, Arthur and Emma of the Boyd artistic dynasty took Golden Summer, Eaglemont to Europe where it became the first painting by an Australian-born artist to be exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, and was awarded a Mention honorable at the 1892 Paris Salon.

Travels to England[link]

In 1897 Streeton sailed for London on the Polynesien, stopping at Port Said before continuing on via Cairo and Naples. He held an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1900 and became a member of the Chelsea Arts Club in 1903. Although he had developed a considerable reputation in Australia, he failed to achieve the same success in England. His trips to London were financed by the sales of his paintings at home in Australia. His time in England reinforced a strong sense of patriotism towards the British Empire and, like many, anticipated the coming war with Germany with some enthusiasm. In 1906, Streeton returned to Australia and completed some paintings at Mount Macedon in February 1907 before going back to London in October. Paintings done in Venice in September 1908 were exhibited in Australia in July 1909 as "Arthur Streeton's Venice". In Australia again in April 1914 he held exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne and went back to England in early 1915.

War artist[link]

Along with other members of the Chelsea Arts Club, including Tom Roberts, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (British Army) at the age of 48. He worked at the 3rd London General Hospital in Wandsworth and reached the rank of corporal.

Mount St Quentin, oil-on-canvas, completed in 1918

Arthur Streeton standing at the far right in this group portrait of Australian official war artists, 1916-1918 by George Coates, 1920. Oil on canvas, 124.2 x 104.5 cm. The painting presents, left to right: front — George Bell; standing — John Longstaff, Charles Bryant, George Washington Lambert, A. Henry Fullwood, James Quinn, H. Septimus Power, Streeton; and seated back — Will Dyson, Fred Leist.

Streeton was made an Australian Official War Artist with the Australian Imperial Force, holding the rank of Honorary Lieutenant, and he travelled to France on 14 May 1918 and was attached to the 2nd Division, receiving his movement order on 8th May 1918. He worked in France, with a break in August, until October 1918.^[10][11] Expected by the Commonwealth to produce sketches and drawings that were "descriptive", Streeton concentrated on the landscape of the scenes of war and did not attempt to convey the human suffering. Unlike the more famous war art depicting the definitive moments of battle, Streeton produced "military still life", capturing the everyday moments of the war. Streeton explained what was at that time an unconventional point-of-view — a perspective which was based in experience:

Two paintings from this period — Villers Bretonneux (1918)^[12] and Boulogne — (1918)^[13] are in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Later years[link]

After the war, Streeton resumed painting in the Grampians and Dandenong Ranges. Streeton built a house on five acres (20,000 m²) at Olinda in the Dandenongs where he continued to paint. He won the Wynne Prize in 1928 with Afternoon Light, Goulburn Valley. He was an art critic for The Argus from 1929 to 1935 and in 1937 was knighted for services to the arts. He married Esther Leonora Clench, a Canadian violinist, in 1908. Streeton died in September 1943. He is buried at Fern Tree Gully cemetery.

Prices[link]

Streeton's paintings are amongst the most collectible of Australian artists and attracted high prices during his lifetime. Golden Summer, Eaglemont was sold for around 1000 guineas in 1924 and in the 1980s it was bought in a private sale by the National Gallery of Australia for US$3.5 million, a price since considered excessive. In 1985, Settler's Camp sold at auction for A$800,000 and this remained the record auction price for Streeton's work until 23 May 2005, when his 1890 painting, Sunlight Sweet, Coogee, was sold for A$2.04 million (A$1.853 million before tax), becoming only the second painting by an Australian artist to exceed the A$2 million mark at auction (after Frederick McCubbin's Bush Idyll which sold for A$2.3 million in 1998). The painting was part of the Foster's Group collection and was sold at auction by Sotheby's.

Streeton's works appear in many major Australian galleries and museums, including the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia.

Images[link]

• The domes of St. Mark's. 1908

See also[link]

• Australian art

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Galbally, Ann E. (1979, revised ed.) Arthur Streeton Lansdowne Editions, Melbourne. ISBN 0701810262
• Galbally, Ann E. Galbally. (1990) "Streeton, Sir Arthur Ernest (1867 - 1943)," Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 12. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.
• Reid, John B. (1977). Australian Artists at War: Compiled from the Australian War Memorial Collection. Vol. 1. 1885-1925; Vol. 2 1940-1970. South Melbourne, Victoria: Sun Books. 10-ISBN 0-7251-0254-3/13-ISBN 978-0-7251-0254-8; OCLC 4035199

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arthur Streeton

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Arthur Streeton

• Artist's footsteps - Arthur Streeton
• Arthur Streeton at Australian Art
• Arthur Streeton on Picture Australia
• Dictionary of Australian Art, Arthur Streeton