128-129 / 184
128
129
The only seascape that Akbar Padamsee painted, this
vast canvas of a stormy sea was originally commissioned
by prominent Mumbai lawyer Naval Vakil, who was an
important collector and patron to many Indian Modernists.
Painted in 1970, the painting has its origins in the view of the
Arabian Sea as seen from Vakil’s Napean Sea Road home.
Padamsee captures the turbulence of the sea through
variations of blue, black and grey. Brushstrokes change
direction capturing the fluidity andmovement of the waves,
simulating the churning of the ocean. Swatches of black and
blue mirror the night sky and echo the dark depths of the
sea. Art critic Geeta Kapur writes of Padamsee’s paintings,
“Anything that is worth contemplating is possessed of a
solitude and indeed Akbar’s landscapes are immensely
solitary.” (“Akbar Padamsee: the other side of solitude,”
Contemporary Indian Artists
, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing
House Pvt Ltd, 1978, p. xx) The present lot evokes this very
quality of immense solitude.
The scale of the work and largely monochromatic palette
recall Padamsee’s iconic Grey Works from the previous
decade, which explored tonality and structure in a similar
vein. His interpretation of the sea, while vast and lonely, is
also imbued with an internal emotional content. This ability
to balance solitude and intellect with energy and feeling, is
the key to why Padamsee’s paintings are uniquely situated
in the landscape of Indian modernism.
“Blue is not only the colour of the
sky, but can be made to project
itself forward...”
AKBAR PADAMSEE
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED
PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW DELHI
61
AKBAR PADAMSEE
(b. 1928)
Untitled
Signed and dated 'PADAMSEE 70' (upper left)
1970
Oil on canvas
61.75 x 107.75 in (157 x 273.7 cm)
Rs 2,00,00,000 - 3,00,00,000
$ 317,465 - 476,195
Padamsee’s iconic Grey Works from the early 1960s echo the monochromatic
palette and immense solitude of the present lot.
Greek Landscape
, 1960
Saffronart, New Delhi, 8 September 2016, lot 13
Sold for INR 19.19 crores ($2.9 million)