Important Notice

Sudhir Patwardhan's recent works, particularly his large-format canvases like 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... Sudhir Patwardhan's recent works, particularly his large-format canvases like 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, p. 6).

In the present lot, an epic canvas titled The Clearing, 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 colourful and lively shanties with the bleak grey residential blocks that they must forcibly make way for. This process has left “…a vast emptiness in the belly of the painting. The cleared land has white chalk marks to indicate the footprint of the high-rise. As one looks at the surrounding slums at the back, it appears as if we're looking at the horizon, their rooftops rubbing against a pink evening sky. The sky morphs into a polluted water-body as if a rising dream had been gunned down and utopian hopes shook hands with the dystopian reality. In the waters an unoccupied or abandoned building is reflected… A disturbing link is formed between the high-rise at the back, the reflection and the hollow footprint of the yet to be constructed high-rise. Right at the back, a settlement of small tenements and a few industrial sheds pile up on an ill-fated hill soon to be leveled by the powerful real estate mafia. The horizon rubs against another pink sky. One wonders if there is yet another mezzanine world with a lake and hill beyond this pale pink sky" (Ibid., p. 7).

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