Mohan Samant, Untitled (Composition in Red and Blue), 1964: The Friday Find

13 - 20 March 2026

“Arriving in New York in January 1959, I was amazed at the availability of a vast range of painterly materials, including materials that can be used to texturise the canvas. I began to combine the ancient Egyptian surfaces and hierography with the colors and modernized forms of Indian miniature painting. I was not an archaeologist or a decipherer of hieroglyphic writing; it was the controlled textural aspect which appealed to me.”

Mohan Samant

  • Mohan Samant (1924 - 2004) studied at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai from 1947-1952 where in his early years there was exposed to a colonial curriculum, copying plaster casts of classical sculpture and studying Indian miniature painting - particularly Basohli painting, which contributed to the development of his own aesthetic sensibilities. He joined the second flush of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group and exhibited extensively throughout the late 1950s.
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  • In 1957, he was awarded a cultural exchange scholarship to Rome, sponsored by the Italian government. He also travelled to...

    In 1957, he was awarded a cultural exchange scholarship to Rome, sponsored by the Italian government. He also travelled to Egypt, where he was influenced by hieroglyphics:

     

    "I was overwhelmed by their hieroglyphic wall paintings, their monumental temples, and their equally monumental sculptures, which inspired and stimulated me with painterly ideas. The stimulus that this created in my mind still exists."

  • A Rockefeller fellowship brought Samant to New York from 1959 to 1964.  During this time, he started exhibiting internationally and with World House Galleries in New York. This painting was given to friends of his in 1964, shortly before his return to India.

    He was in Mumbai for several years, and continued to work with World House, before it’s closure in the late 1960s.  Samant then returned to New York permanently in 1968. A telented sarani player, a friend of his from his first stint in New York recalled how his studio operated as an informal music studio, and would often hold jam sessions, with people walking in off the street, often to hear world class musicians.

     

    “You must know composition… Without that, you cannot create a picture… Let there be colour and form and movement.”

    Samant quoted in an essay by Judith Wink

  • A major characteristic of Samant’s work was the synthesis of a multitude of references, culminating in a diverse range of...

    A major characteristic of Samant’s work was the synthesis of a multitude of references, culminating in a diverse range of imagery.  He was fascinated by ancient art, especially that of Egypt, and took further inspiration from Mughal miniatures, Jain manuscript paintings, and tribal and folk symbolism. In his paintings, he fused Hindu mythology with these external influences. Samant’s relief-like impasto and deeply textured works recall the rough surfaces of rocks and caves.

     

    "It appears that I am painting Indian miniature forms on a dilapidated Egyptian wall painting."

  • Samant's work next to that of Gaitonde and Satish Gujral at MoMA, New York in 1964. Installation view of the...

    Samant's work next to that of Gaitonde and Satish Gujral at MoMA, New York in 1964.

     

    Installation view of the exhibition "Recent Acquisitions: South Asian Painting," in the series, "Art in a Changing World: 1884-1964."

    May 27, 1964–July 29, 1964; September 18, 1964–November 2, 1964.

    From the photographic archive of The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. IN738.1. Photograph by Soichi Sunami.

  • This painting belonged to Samant’s friends Carol and Alan, and was in their collection for over 60 years. It has a highly textured and rough surface suggestive of pink lichen clad cave walls, dry river beds, with what look like petroglyphs carved into the sand, all floating within a serene grey/blue boarder, a nod to miniature painting traditions.  His works are complex, contemplative and yet have movement and vitality to them.

      

    Samant’s work is present in the collection of several international museum collections, including KNMA, New Delhi; Tate Modern, London; MoMA & The Met, New York amongst others.

  • There are two other works currently available by Samant; a collage work Figure and Body Parts, (1982) and Figures on Blue (1989).
  • Mohan Samant, Untitled (Composition in Red and Blue), 1964

    Mohan Samant

    Untitled (Composition in Red and Blue), 1964
    Fact Sheet:

     

    Mohan Samant 1924-2004

    Untitled (Composition in Red and Blue), 1964

    Signed centre right, further signed, dated and inscribed 'To Carol and Alan/ Mohan Samant/ Nov 9th 64' on the reverse, and with label from World House Galleries, New York on the stretcher

    Oil, sand and mixed media on canvas

    152.4 x 47.1 cm
    60 x 18 1/2 in

     

    Provenance

    Private US Collection, New York, gifted to the previous owners by the Artist in 1964;

    Thence by descent;

     

    Exhibitions

    London, Grosvenor Gallery, South Asian Modern Art 2024, 13 June – 5 July 2024, no. 29, illustrated in exhibition catalogue pg. 79

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  • Further reading and references:
    Ranjit Hoskote, Marcella Sirhandi and Jeffrey Wechsler (eds.), Mohan Samant: Paintings, Ahmedabad 2013.
    Shanay Jhaveri (ed.), Everything We Do is Music, exhibition catalogue, The Drawing Room, London 2017.
    Zehra Jumabhoy and Boon Hui Tan (eds), The Progressive Revolution: Modern Art for a New India, exhibition catalogue, Asia Society Museum, New York, 2018.

     

    Charles Moore, March 2026