Tyeb Mehta's Falling Bird: When Despair Becomes Defiance
Falling Bird by Tyeb Mehta,1999, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 47 in
Tyeb Mehta (1925–2009) wasn’t a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG), but over time he became one of its most beloved and influential members. And one of his greatest achievements was the ‘Falling Bird’ and ‘Falling Figure’ series in which he drew plummeting entities in various stages of descent, representing the anxiety and despondence Mehta felt at societal violence—like the Partition-era violence he witnessed first-hand.
This painting, Falling Bird (1999), combines this approach with mythical overtones. It channels Ramayana’s Jatayu, a vulture-demigod felled by Ravana mid-flight. Jungian analysis says that dreams of falling are associated with a loss of control, a despair manifested in the imagery of hurtling down a cliff or a building. The lines, therefore, evoke both raw adrenaline (the ‘fight or flight’ response) and this land’s history of violence. The vivid blue used to paint the bird is reminiscent of Mehta’s work in the 1970s, where twisted blue torsos were frequently used to depict psychological suffering.
And yet, despite the fact that we are watching them fall, Mehta’s figures are defiant in their starkness and symmetry. As Ranjit Hoskote noted in the book Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges (2005), they are creatures “redeemed from gravity”. Seeing these falling figures in person, one understands why Mehta’s work continues to inspire such reverence among critics and collectors alike.
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...Tyeb Mehta (1925–2009) wasn’t a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG), but over time he became one of its most beloved and influential members. And one of his greatest achievements was the ‘Falling Bird’ and ‘Falling Figure’ series in which he drew plummeting entities in various stages of descent, representing the anxiety and despondence Mehta felt at societal violence—like the Partition-era violence he witnessed first-hand.
This painting, Falling Bird (1999), combines this approach with mythical overtones. It channels Ramayana’s Jatayu, a vulture-demigod felled by Ravana mid-flight. Jungian analysis says that dreams of falling are associated with a loss of control, a despair manifested in the imagery of hurtling down a cliff or a building. The lines, therefore, evoke both raw adrenaline (the ‘fight or flight’ response) and this land’s history of violence. The vivid blue used to paint the bird is reminiscent of Mehta’s work in the 1970s, where twisted blue torsos were frequently used to depict psychological suffering.
And yet, despite the fact that we are watching them fall, Mehta’s figures are defiant in their starkness and symmetry. As Ranjit Hoskote noted in the book Tyeb Mehta: Ideas Images Exchanges (2005), they are creatures “redeemed from gravity”. Seeing these falling figures in person, one understands why Mehta’s work continues to inspire such reverence among critics and collectors alike.
For more stories like these, click here