Important Notice

Sudhir Patwardhan’s works, particularly his large format canvases such as the present lot, carry forward the simultaneously intimate and complex relationship that he has shared with his city, Mumbai, for several decades now. Today, Mumbai and its suburban sister, Thane, where the self-taught artist resides, form one of the largest, most congested, and certainly most contradictory conurbations in the world. As fellow Mumbai artist, Jitish Kallat,... Sudhir Patwardhan’s works, particularly his large format canvases such as the present lot, carry forward the simultaneously intimate and complex relationship that he has shared with his city, Mumbai, for several decades now. Today, Mumbai and its suburban sister, Thane, where the self-taught artist resides, form one of the largest, most congested, and certainly most contradictory conurbations in the world. As fellow Mumbai artist, Jitish Kallat, explains, it is “…at once dynamic and dysfunctional…a heady hodgepodge of languages, castes, religions and class difference. Life in the gargantuan metropolis goes on, precariously balancing commerce and corruption, affluence and abject poverty, swelling real estate prices and rampant homelessness” (Citing the City, Sakshi Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2007-08, pg. 6).

In the present lot, Patwardhan’s imagery is sensitive to these contradictions and perhaps even slightly tinged by his early interest in Marxism and the principles of the left. Resigned to the deep divide in both means and consciousness that exists between rich and poor in the city, here the artist juxtaposes Mumbai’s shanties with the posh residential blocks that they must forcibly make way for.

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