JEHANGIR SABAVALA
Akara Modern
1922 -2011
Jehangir Sabavala was one of the most distinguished members of India’s
first generation of postcolonial artists. Born to the aristocratic Cowasji
Jehangir Readymoney family in Mumbai, he spent his childhood and early youth in
India and Europe. He was educated at Elphinstone College and the Sir J. J.
School of Art, Mumbai; the Heatherley School of Art, London; and the Academie
Andre Lhote, Paris. Between 1951, when he held his first exhibition at the Taj
Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, and 2008, when ‘Ricorso,’ his last solo was held at the
city’s Sakshi Gallery, Sabavala progressed with poise and elegance from one
theme and formal preoccupation to the next.
Over nearly seven decades, he engaged with still life and the
landscape, reimagining both through a post-cubist lens. Even his rendering of
the human figure evolved through different types and temperaments, ranging from
the earthly to the otherworldly. He developed a distinctive visionary approach
to the natural world, evoking veiled geographies of slopes and ridges,
mysteriously clouded mountains, serene plains, and uncharted waters.
Sabavala’s works have been showcased at numerous prestigious venues
around the world, such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi, Edinburgh,
London and New York. In 2020 a wide range of his works were exhibited during
his solo show, ‘Jehangir Sabavala: Pilgrim Souls, Soaring Skies, Crystalline
Seas’ at Akara. He was a recipient of Padma Shri Award in 1977, and received
the Lalit Kala Ratna Award under the fellowship of Lalit Kala Akademi in 2007.
Images
Exhibitions
India Art Fair 2025 February 06 - February 09 , 2025
Jehangir Sabavala: Pilgrim Souls, Soaring Skies, Crystalline Seas October 29 - December 10 , 2020
Press
Parsiana, December 07, 2020
The New Indian Express, November 23, 2020
India Today, November 08, 2020
Architectural Digest, November 04, 2020
Mumbai Mirror, October 30, 2020
Mint Lounge, October 28, 2020
