Important Notice

Sudhir Patwardhan, a radiologist by training, began to paint soon after his graduation from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune in 1972. Entering the field of modern Indian art at a time when it was dominated by figurative artists like Bhupen Khakhar and Tyeb Mehta, it is not surprising that Patwardhan’s early practice centered on the human figure. As he categorically states, "When I started on the road to becoming an artist, there was no... Sudhir Patwardhan, a radiologist by training, began to paint soon after his graduation from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune in 1972. Entering the field of modern Indian art at a time when it was dominated by figurative artists like Bhupen Khakhar and Tyeb Mehta, it is not surprising that Patwardhan’s early practice centered on the human figure. As he categorically states, "When I started on the road to becoming an artist, there was no doubt in my mind as to what Art was about. It was about people" (Sudhir Patwardhan, "Near and Far", Festival of India, Georges Pompidou Center exhibition catalogue, 1985, unpaginated).

In addition to the artistic milieu of the time, Patwardhan’s early expressionistic figuration was deeply influenced by the patients he encountered in his medical practice, and by his sociopolitical commitments to the oppressed. He says, "Painting the human figure is a commitment and a responsibility. I would not be able to justify being a painter without being a painter of people. This may sound unnecessarily self righteous, but the remoteness of artistic aims from the immediate and pressing needs of ordinary people bothers me. I would have liked to be a revolutionary, or one who works directly for the improvement of society. I became an artist instead. And the guilt of this choice has not left me" (Ibid.).

This work, from 1975, is one of the artist’s most initial experiments with the human figure, and with the creation of "a compelling iconography of labour" (Ranjit Hoskote, Sudhir Patwardhan: The Complicit Observer, Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 2004, p. 13). The figure on the left is drawn from the monumental piece ‘Composition with Two Parrots’ (1935-39) by Fernand Leger, an artist Patwardhan has always admired, and whose left political leanings and sympathy for the working class he identified with. The figures on the right, however, represent Patwardhan’s rethinking of Leger’s legendary ‘New Man’ in the mid 1970s, wondering if such idealization would blind him to the realities that surrounded him. Consequently the rightmost figure, with the shirt completely over his head, symbolizes this blind state (adapted from an email exchange with the artist, February 2008).

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site