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AKBAR PADAMSEE
(b. 1928)
Untitled
Signed 'Padamsee' (upper left)
1987
Oil on canvas
35 x 35.25 in (89 x 89.5 cm)
$ 100,000 ‒ 150,000
Rs 64,00,000 ‒ 96,00,000
PROVENANCE:
Saffronart, 8‒9 December 2010, lot 81
PUBLISHED:
Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella eds.,
Akbar
Padamsee: Work in Language
, Mumbai: Marg Publications in
association with Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, p. 70 (illustrated)
Akbar Padamsee alternates between figures and
landscapes throughout his career. The present lot,
painted in 1987, carries forward his technique of
evoking mood through swift dabs of paint applied
with a palette knife. The palette is mellow in
comparison with the rich, saturated colours of the
metascapes of the 1970s. The figure’s downcast eyes
and the dark colours set a melancholic tone. By the
1980s, Padamsee’s figuration was “heavier than that
of the sixties but not much different. The bodies and
faces have aged a little. There are single figures and
couples. The mood is one of irrevocable sadness.
The heads are turned away from the aridity which
life holds.” (Ella Dutta,
Akbar Padamsee: The Spirit
of Order
, New Delhi: Art Heritage, 1988‒89, online)
"To express any mood or emotion, one must have the knowledge
of sublimating the subject matter."
AKBAR PADAMSEE
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