New Delhi, Aug. 14 -- In 2002, the famously reclusive artist Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009) enjoyed a resurgence in the public eye after one of his paintings, a triptych titled Celebration (1995), fetched a staggering $317,500 at Christie's, the highest ever amount paid for a work by an Indian artist in an international auction. While the sale may have returned Mehta to the limelight, his richly variegated legacy received the attention due to it at a magisterial show curated by Roobina Karode in 2025 to commemorate his centenary at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in Delhi.

The exhibition now finds a second life as a book, with essays by Karode, the late Gieve Patel, Ashok Vajpeyi, Aditi Ghildiyal, and Srinivas Mopidevi, along with nearly 20...