Akbar Padamsee

Acquired directly from the artist in 1983
Private Collection, Dubai
Current owner

Overall good condition,colours of original slightly richer than catalogue illustration, more magenta tones in browns of landscape than in catalogue illustration, as viewed.
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'For Akbar Padamsee, painting is a direct result of tensions created by "the linear, the formal, the tonal and the chromatic." His images alternate between the human figure and the landscape, and between primary and tertiary colors - anchors that allow him to enjoy an aesthetic variety to a successful conclusion.' (Amrita Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern and Contemporary Indian Artists, Mumbai, 2005, p. 60).

Padamsee's most distinctive works are his "Metascapes" the archetypal landscape that began in the 1970s, these were a result of series of experiments juxtaposing colours and exploring textures.  While the compositions contained the material elements of a landscape, they evoked a vast, endless infinity.  These sublime compositions consisted of, ' ... brilliantly choreographed planes of light and dark made in thick impasto which evoked mountains, field, sky and water.  The controlled cadence of the colours breaks into a throbbing intensity as the artist in his most masterly works, evokes infinite time and space.' (Dalmia 1997, p.17).

The artist states "... colours expand and contrast, colours travel on the surface of the static painting... colour trajectory is strategy...  A colourist needs to master the art of silencing some colours, so as to render others eloquent (Akbar Padamsee, India Myth and Reality, Aspects of Modern Indian Art, Oxford 1982, p.17).