In a note sent from London, his bereaved contemporary, M F Husain, said: “Tyeb Mehta was a great figure in contemporary Indian art. He portrayed the pain of humanity which was so intense. As he said, pain is the only reality, the rest is subject to doubt.”

There were some happy memories too. Shireen Gandhy of Chemould Prescott, Mumbai, recalls: “If you spent an hour with Tyeb you came back enriched. He was a committed and serious artist whose work and life had so much integrity. But he could also be entertaining. Tyeb never made art with an intention to sell. The boom time passed him by and he didn’t really care about it.”

Interestingly, Mehta began his tryst with art in a darkened film laboratory. His short films won him the Prix Nationale in Cagne-sur-Mer in 1947. However, he felt his true calling was painting and joined the JJ School of Art the same year. Mehta’s big break came in 1959 when he left for London. The Rockefeller Scholarship in 1968 saw Mehta shift studio to the US. Mehta could not resist the pull of India and he returned to Mumbai in the 1980s.

Having exhibited all over the country and internationally, Mehta was planning a retrospective at the National Gallery of Modern Art here next year. Unfortunately, he did not live to see his big day.