Jehangir Vazifdar: A 60 Year Retrospective

The late 60s and 70s were a time when the Indian sensibility found fresh voice, a time when new styles, techniques and visions came into the light. To some he will be known as the architect of some of Mumbai’s iconic buildings, yet Jehangir Vazifdar is a significant part of that resplendent period in modern Indian Art; his work always reflected current ideas, yet remained unique and original. As the gallery puts it, “he was a visionary … who believed that to create something non-existent in nature, one must study the various forms created by nature and use the simplest shapes – straight lines, symmetrical patterns, uniformity of texture and the colour deep black”.

This looks like a rare opportunity to see a variety of work from a prolific artist and relentless experimenter, stretching his craft beyond the traditional boundaries of oil and canvas. Overlap Art was a series of smaller works in fluent felt-pen strokes on printed magazine covers; his ‘Fake-Proof Art’, another example of his imaginative approach, involved applying paint in thick layers, then carved through them with a foot rule to create a textured effect that was impossible to replicate. And his achievements also included a unique Dictionary of Colour that graded colours and interpreting their meaning.

To 10 November.

Above: Jehangir Vazifdar, The Embrace