Mahirwan Mamtani

Born in 1935 in Bhiria, India, Mahirwan Mamtani moved to Germany in 1966 on a scholarship to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. The current works, exhibited in Europe in 1967 and 1970, are from Mamtani’s first years in Munich and showcase the great vitality and self-assurance the artist possessed from the very start of his career. The roots of Mamtani’s celebrated Centrovision series are clearly felt in these early tempera works, which hold an unparalleled range of influences and allusions, including Gandharan sculpture, Mandala diagrams, Tantric philosophy, Mithila painting and Rangoli patterns, as well as Russian Constructivism and the Modernist work of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.

Reviews in the German press from 1967 reveal that Mamtani’s exhibitions of that year, where the current lots were shown, were very well-received. Fascinated by the profound Eastern influences, and struck by the vibrant, sharp colors and graphic geometrical patterns, the contemporary European viewers found the works visually, intellectually and spiritually absorbing. A review of Mamtani’s show at Galerie Gurlitt in Allgemeine Zeitung on 11 December 1967, praises the artist’s ability to make classical Indian traditions feel relevant to a modern, Western audience. The universal visual language of Mamtani’s works was declared in this review as ‘ein Hymnus auf die Menschlichkeit’ – ‘A Hymn to Humanity’. (‘Hymnus auf die Menschlichkeit’, Allgemeine Zeitung, 11 December 1967)