Mehlli Gobhai (B. 1931)

Mehlli Gobhai (B. 1931) Mehlli, was born in Mumbai in 1931, and completed his undergraduate education from St. Xavier`s College. He then went on to train as an artist at the Royal College of Art in London, and the Art Students League and the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York. For twenty years after his studies, he lived and worked out of New York, which is significant in the sense that his work derives from sources then unexplored by most of his contemporaries who spent their time in Europe instead. Gobhai chose to return to Mumbai in the late 1980s. Gobhai is what most people would call a classical abstractionist, but in his work we see many traditional artistic leanings. He has always painted in series, using and reusing an image until he has drawn from it all of its connotations and potential. Surprisingly, abstraction, in Gobhai`s case, was borne from the figure amongst other things. He spent two years as a student studying human anatomy and drawing figures, and attributes the learning of form and structure to this early training. He slowly broke down the figure, inventing new and simpler representations of it. He says, "...Slowly I really forgot about the figure and got extremely involved in the pure form. I also got impatient with the sensuality of the curved line. And the elimination of the curved lines has been taken over by the modulation of tones.? "If I had to give up either colour or lines I would certainly give up colour - which I almost have."