Important Notice

Prabhakar Barwe's artistic career spanned three decades, during which he perfected his abstract vocabulary to explore the nuances of form and space. The present lot from 1994, probably one of the last works Barwe completed, is a testament to the poetic economy of the distinctive style he spent his career refining. He places organic and inorganic forms, drained of all colour, against an equally austere background. This careful arrangement... Prabhakar Barwe's artistic career spanned three decades, during which he perfected his abstract vocabulary to explore the nuances of form and space. The present lot from 1994, probably one of the last works Barwe completed, is a testament to the poetic economy of the distinctive style he spent his career refining. He places organic and inorganic forms, drained of all colour, against an equally austere background. This careful arrangement "...reflect[s] certain essential features of poetic form; the brevity of elements, the multiple resonance of their meanings, a certain instantness of something grasped lucidly. These paintings do not reflect the world but rather show one way of seeing reality and at once experiencing it. The profound stillness that emanates from this space is a contemplative silence in which the spectator's eye is turned inward." (V. Sharma, Prabhakar Barwe, Gallery Chemould exhibition catalogue, 1987, unpaginated)

Barwe uses enamel house paint diluted with turpentine, which he began to work with in the 1970s, to achieve "a delicacy akin to watercolour... His brushwork became practically invisible, and strong colour gave way to muted shades... The artist's mature works correspond to his disposition - they are quiet, self-effacing, and almost monastic." (Amrita Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Indian Artists, Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, 2005, p. 15)

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