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Akbar Padamsee
Image courtesy of the artist
An article in the
Times of India
lauding Padamsee as a “Painter’s Painter,”
1 April 1960
Image courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee
39
"When I did the Grey series, I was preoccupied with using singular brush
strokes across the canvas without interruptions.This was possible because
I was using only grey and did not need to stop. There was no distinction
of hue between the background and figure except that it at one point it
would emerge."
AKBAR PADAMSEEOf the four large scale grey
works from the 1960 exhibition,
Juhu
was originally owned by
M F Husain and subsequently
lost, and the other two works
have previously been offered at
auction and entered important
collections in India. In 2011,
Reclining Nude
(1960), was sold
for USD 1.42 million by Sotheby’s
New York. The following year,
Cityscape
(1959), sold for USD
1.3 million at Christie’s New York.
The present lot,
Greek Landscape
,
is the last of the four to enter
the auction market and was the
signature piece of the exhibition.
Cityscape
, 1960 (Christie’s, New York, 21 March 2012, lot 527, $ 1.3 million)
Plastic emulsion on canvas, 122.7 x 348.6 cm
Juhu
, 1960 (Owned by M F Husain, subsequently lost)
Plastic emulsion on canvas, 68 x 240 cm
Reclining Nude
, 1960 (Sotheby’s, New York, 25 March 2011, lot 218, $ 1.4 million)
Plastic emulsion on canvas, 92 x 308 cm
Greek Landscape
, 1960
Plastic emulsion on canvas, 132 x 366 cm
All images reproduced from Bhanumati Padamsee and
Annapurna Garimella eds.,
Akbar Padamsee: Work in
Language
, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art
Gallery, 2010