Tyeb Mehta

He died on July 2, 2009 due to heart attack.

Tyeb Mehta was born on September 26, 1925 in Kapadvanj, in the town of Kheda district in Gujarat in a Shi’ite Muslim family. During the partition of the country, his family chose to stay back in India, instead of moving over to Muslim-dominated Pakistan.

Raised in the Crawford Market area of Mumbai, young Tyeb was greatly influenced by the communal riots that the family was exposed to during partition. The incidents that he witnessed early in his life played a crucial role in his upbringing and later in his career.

He started off his career by working as a film editor at the Famous Studios in Tardeo, Mumbai in a cinema laboratory, along with his family.

It was his profound interest in painting that took him to Sir J.J. School of Art in 1952, from where he did his diploma in painting.

Later, he became a part of the Bombay Progressive Artists Group, the same group which boasted of having painting greats such as FN Souza, SH Raza and MF Husain. Inspired by the western modernism that the group professed, he moulded his paintings on the same lines.

In 1959, he moved to London, where he spent the important years of his youth life. It was during this time that he was inspired by the works of Francis Bacon, an expressionist painter whom he became acquainted with in London. The latter’s work greatly inspired his future paintings..

In 1964, he moved to New York, where he was awarded a fellowship from the John D Rockefeller 3rd Fund in 1968. His painting style eventually evolved as he drew inspiration from minimalist art and his work came to be characterized by minimalism.

In 1974, he was honoured the Prix Nationale at the International Festival of Painting in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France.

In 1988, the Government of Madhya Pradesh conferred him with the Kalidas Samman.

In 2007, the Government of India honored him with the country’s third highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan.