Svaraj: A Journey with Tyeb Mehta's 'Shantiniketan Triptych' | 2002

By Ramchandra Gandhi

Published by Vadehra Art Gallery, 2002

Hardcover, 238 pages

25.7 x 18.3 x 2.2 cm

This first of its kind book records a double journey of inquiry: into the symbolism of Tyeb Mehta’s ‘Shantiniketan Triptych’ painted in 1985, and the deeper meaning of ‘Svaraj’ or self realisation. The journey overlaps, illuminating one another because, as Gandhi shows, the work is a three-paneled portrait of distortion, of self-awareness and finally the recovery of integrity of selfhood in inclusive self-realisation. The author has sought to bring to his understanding of a great work of contemporary Indian painting, and its historical context, the perspective of Indian philosophical spirituality, especially Advaita Vedanta.