An artist and a gentleman

Well-known artist Jehangir Sabavala passed away at his South Mumbai home yesterday. An art aficionado pays tribute

An artist and a gentleman

Well-known artist Jehangir Sabavala passed away at his South Mumbai home yesterday. An art aficionado pays tribute

James Joyce wrote the semi-autobiographical, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but when it comes to Jehangir Sabavala, one could put in a twist and write, The Portrait of the Artist as a Gentleman.

Apart from being a very talented artist, Sabavala was a gentleman to the core. Not for him labels like the temperamental artist (all temperament and little art?) who would fling brushes across a room or upturn palettes in a fit of pique citing artistic license.

Always be remembered: Jehangir Sabavala'su00a0 career spanned over 60
years in which he touched many lives. file pic

In fact, this South Mumbai based artist was always so polite and cordial with gallery staff, addressing them by their first names, resulting in his popularity.

After all, nobody likes being a statistic or a nameless entity and Sabavala had the humility to not make anybody feel as if he was a mere number in a gallery. He also had the ability to fill up a room with his presence.

My parents had a lot of interaction with him where art was concerned. If I remember correctly, they had a huge retrospective of his at the Jehangir Art Gallery some time in the late '60s or early '70s.

Although my interaction with Sabavala was limited to framing of his early art works, he knew his mind and always made careful personal selections of his frames, which were done most aesthetically.

I have never known Sabavala to be involved with art politics which bore testament to the fact that he and his lovely wife Shireen were almost always present for art openings held in the city through the year.

u00a0A funny incident which had been narrated by my parents in the past was the fact that his mother Bapsy was in a way instrumental in getting them together, which was at a huge charity ball at the Taj in the early 1940s and that she had placed both of them at a table where Sabavala was seated and asked him to carry out the required introductions.

The city and the art world in fact, will miss not only Sabavala the painter, but Sabavala the person too. Maybe the white sky will be his canvas now and he will fill it in the colours he knew and used so well, here on earth.