• JEHANGIR VAZIFDAR

To create an absolutely new form which is non-existent in nature, we must first study the various forms created by nature

- Jehangir Vazifdar -

About

He was a visionary as much as an artist. He exhibited his work alongside his contemporaries, such as MF Husain, Francis Newton Souza, Ram Kumar, Anjolie Ela Menon and Satish Gujral amongst others. Choosing to keep his works within the family, his paintings though seen and appreciated by critics in his time have never been put up for sale.

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Artists have to play a very important role in society. Their creations can guide the human race.

- Jehangir Vazifdar -

Biography

jehangir-vazifdar

Jehangir Vazifdar was born in Bombay in 1920, into an era where cubism and other defining forces of modernism were shattering the very boundaries of art.

He was by training an architect. Indeed, he remained a practicing architect and builder of great reputation, founding his own architects’ firm in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. He then set up the Vazifdar College of Building Industries, a pioneering effort in the field of construction-related education.

Initially he also taught at his alma mater, the JJ College of Architecture, Bombay. It was just the first step in an illustrious career, during which he designed and constructed some of Bombay’s most iconic structures.

These included Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Tata Memorial Hospital, Breach Candy Apartments and the placing of Cuffe Parade on the city’s map – with its earliest developments, Cuffe Castle and Palm Springs.

In parallel, Jehangir Vazifdar continued to lead a fertile, inventive life as an artist.

Works, Mediums and Styles

“Painting should have two functions, viz.

To please the eye and satisfy the imagination of both the artist and the observer”.

– Jehangir Vazifdar

From abstract oils to classic mid-century cubism. From powerful portraiture to intimate felt-pen drawings, Jehangir Vazifdar’s work ran a gamut unique to the man. He invented styles and stylizations, theories of colour and graceful geometries of form, across a variety of mediums.

Jehangir Vazifdar was a 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.

Fake-Proof Art was another example of his imaginative approach. Paint was applied in thick layers, then carved through with a foot rule, creating a textured effect that was impossible to replicate.

Jehangir Vazifdar was a visionary as much as an artist. Among his crowning intellectual achievements was a unique Dictionary of Colour for future generations of artists, quantifying colours, grading them, and interpreting their meaning.

Pop Art on Op Art? Something more original – Vazifdar’s lively show of coloured surprises which were on view…at Taj Art Gallery…

- from a review in Current -

Shows

Given below is a chronology of shows, solo and group, featuring Jehangir Vazifdar’s work.
A Permanent exhibition of his works may be found at an intimate gallery located at Corinthian, Colaba.

Taj Art Gallery, Taj Mahal Hotel – June, 1966

Taj Art Gallery, Taj Mahal Hotel – March, 1981

Taj Art Gallery, Taj Mahal Hotel – February, 1987

Jehangir Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda – November, 2004

Leela Kempinski, Near Airport

Studio Windsor, Colaba – March, 2002

Abby Grey,  New York – 2005

One thing is certain. Vazifdar’s angular arrangements are better than Mondrian’s

- from a review in the Afternoon D&C -

Contemporaries

Vazifdar was part of a resplendent period in modern Indian Art.

The late 60s and 70s were a time when the Indian sensibility found fresh voice, when groups such as the Progressives flourished. It was also a time when new styles, techniques and visions came into the arc-light. Jehangir Vazifdar’s work always reflected current ideas, yet remained unique and original.
Amongst the artists he showed with are Bhuppen khakkar, Vivasavan, Prabhakar Barwe & SB Palsiker, all legends of the art world.

Know more about Jehangir Vazifdar on Wikipedia

Press

“When artists’s create they just create. It is for others to interpret” - Jehangir Vazifdar
“Astonishing”. “Better than Mondrian”, “Lively”, “Original”....Vazifdar’s ouvre attracted more than its fair share of fine adjectives. Below are some facsimiles of reviews from a range of publications.

vazifdar2014@gmail.com

Corinthian, Ground floor, 17 Off Arthur Bunder Road, Next to Telephone Bhavan, Near Strand Cinema, Colaba, Mumbai 400 005

+912222029548

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