Manjit Bawa

Trivia

• Was in coma for three years after suffering a stroke.
• Passed away on 29th December 2008.
• Lived and worked out of Dalhousie, India, where his studio is, and Delhi, where his family lives.
• The painter has been surrounded by controversies in his life as an artist, the most recent one being accused of forgery by his assistant.
• Has painted Krishna with a flute, surrounded by dogs and not by cows as mythological paintings depict him.
• When young, he would travel widely either on foot, by bicycle or simply, by hitchhiking.
• Had painted Ranjha, the cowherd from the tragic ballad Heer Ranjha and Lord Krishna with a flute surrounded by dogs and not cows as in mythological paintings.
• Was one of the first painters to break out of the dominant grays and browns and opted for more traditionally Indian colors like pinks, reds and violet.
• Between 1964 and 1971, Bawa worked as a silkscreen printer in Britain, where he also studied art.
• Sen would ask me to do 50 sketches every day, only to reject most of them.