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122
123PROPERTY OF A MIDDLE EASTERN CORPORATE COLLECTION
58
AKBAR PADAMSEE
(b. 1928)
Untitled
Signed and dated 'PADAMSEE 04' (upper left of the left panel)
2004
Oil on canvas
54.25 x 72.25 in (137.5 x 183.3 cm)
Rs 1,80,00,000 ‒ 2,20,00,000
$ 285,715 ‒ 349,210
(Diptych)
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
This diptych is part of Akbar Padamsee’s continuing
exploration of the stillness and structure of the
landscape, through paintings which have over the
years, been categorised as
Metascapes
or
Mirror Images
.
This work could be both. In its composition, one can
find the underlying structure and careful construction
which defines Padamsee’s methodical way of observing
the landscape. He creates, through his favourite
juxtapositions of cadmium and orange, complemented
by browns and ochres, a mountainous landscape that
is at once real and surreal. It is physically possible, yet
imagined.
In a conversation with Naeem Vakil in 1980, Padamsee
said, “If you observe a true artist, you will notice that his
brush does not move on the canvas, it is moving in space.”
(NaeemVakil, “Akbar Padamsee: AMan of Many Moods,”
Bombay
, 7‒21 December 1980) With the sure hand
of a master artist, Padamsee’s brush must have moved
through space to capture on canvas these intertwined
geographic forms which revealed themselves to him.
Akbar Padamsee,
Untitled
, 2006
Saffronart, Mumbai, 16 February 2017, lot 28
Sold for INR 3.6 crores ($545,455)