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NOVEMBER 2016 | THE TIES THAT BIND
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Metascapes are a distinct part of Akbar Padamsee’s
meticulously structured vocabulary. Constantly
experimenting with colour, form and structure, in
1994, Padamsee focussed on a series of uninhabited
landscapes which he called Metascapes. Imbued with
an almost hallucinatory calm, the present lot also has
richly textured areas of mixed colour juxtaposed against
smaller, flat colour planes. The resulting landscape offers
no points for reference, making it deliberately difficult
to understand scale or to locate the foreground. It is
the luminosity that makes this painting mesmerising.
Padamsee has said, “I felt I could use the elements –
water, earth, sky – without referring to any particular
landscape – a metaphysical landscape.”
Art critic Nadkarni wrote of Padamsee’s 1994
solo show in Mumbai titled
Mirror Images
, “Akbar
Padamsee is back with an exhibition which
displays intriguing variations in form and colour...”
He quotes Padamsee, “Meta means ‘beyond’ and
these landscapes transcend conventions and look
beyond norms of reality and style.” (Dnyaneshwar
Nadkarni, “The Mirror Never Lies,”
The Times Of India
,
18 November 1994)
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT
PRIVATE COLLECTION, MUMBAI
54
AKBAR PADAMSEE
(b. 1928)
Untitled
Signed and dated 'PADAMSEE 94'
(upper left)
1994
Oil on canvas
42 x 85.5 in (106.7 x 217.2 cm)
$ 530,305 - 681,820
Rs 3,50,00,000 - 4,50,00,000
EXHIBITED
Akbar Padamsee: Mirror - Images
, Mumbai:
Pundole Art Gallery, 1994
PUBLISHED
Meher Pestonji ed.,
Akbar Padamsee: Mirror
- Images
, Mumbai: Pundole Art Gallery, 1994
(illustrated, unpaginated)