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PROPERTY FROM A PROMINENT PRIVATE COLLECTION, MUMBAI
14
ANJOLIE ELA MENON
(b. 1940)
Untitled
Signed 'Anjolie Ela' (lower left)
Oil on masonite
16.5 x 14.5 in (42 x 36.8 cm)
$ 23,440 ‒ 31,250
Rs 15,00,000 ‒ 20,00,000
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from Art Heritage, New Delhi
PROPERTY FROM A PROMINENT PRIVATE
COLLECTION, MUMBAI
13
AKBAR PADAMSEE
(b. 1928)
Untitled
Signed and dated 'PADAMSEE 85' (upper right ‒ near the rim)
1985
Bronze
Height : 17 in (43.2 cm)
Width : 6.5 in (16.2 cm)
Depth : 9.75 in (24.8 cm)
$ 31,250 ‒ 46,875
Rs 20,00,000 ‒ 30,00,000
First from a limited edition of two
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from Art Heritage, New Delhi
“Love and fear have faces, they have
eyesand mouth.”
AKBAR PADAMSEE
Akbar Padamsee, a deeply intellectual artist, has
addressed his concerns with the metaphysical
definitions of form and space through his paintings,
drawings, photography, film‒making and sculpture.
In the 1950s, he made masks in beaten metal, and
in 1984‒85 he worked on a group of free standing
bronze masks and heads, which were cast in a
foundry in Mumbai. In an interview when these
sculptures were exhibited in Delhi and Mumbai, he
stated, “Sculpting and form, it is difficult to distance
oneself... The head frees one of that. There is an
experimental quality about these.” (Artist quoted
in Laxmi Lal, “I Need To Be In A State Of Grace,”
The
Times of India
, 11 May 1986) This experiment seems
to have lasted for only a brief period of time, and he
made only a few of these bronze sculptures, perhaps
because he did not enjoy the many intermediaries
needed in the casting process. As a result they are
rare, and hard to come by.
Poignancy and isolation mark the frozen silence of
the singular face, as seen in the present lot, and yet
there seems to be a whole range of emotions on
display. “Apart from their startling, sinister beauty...
his sculptures have a striking power of penetration
and hold the possibility of visualizing a tangible
object which defies identification as the surrealistic
subconscious is dredged... Enigmatic as they are,
each viewing results not in familiarity but in fresh
discoveries.” (Nanak Ganguly, “Akbar Padamsee’s
Sculptures,” Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna
Garimella eds.,
Akbar Padamsee: Work in Language
,
Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art
Gallery, 2010, p.171) Padamsee’s continued interest
in constructed form is evident in the kneaded clay‒
like metalworking technique. “They are like pieces
of space covered by the unity of a single, simple
gesture.” (Ganguly, p. 167)
2021