Important Notice

This figure was created in 1951, the same year in which Padamsee was awarded a prize at the Annual Christmas Exhibition in Paris. He had arrived in Paris just a year earlier, and exposure to the artists of the Paris School enriched his work. The diamond patterned robe, like that of a harlequin, provides a structure to the composition and enlivens an otherwise sombre, earthy palette. Padamsee further employed thick layers of impasto, providing a... This figure was created in 1951, the same year in which Padamsee was awarded a prize at the Annual Christmas Exhibition in Paris. He had arrived in Paris just a year earlier, and exposure to the artists of the Paris School enriched his work. The diamond patterned robe, like that of a harlequin, provides a structure to the composition and enlivens an otherwise sombre, earthy palette. Padamsee further employed thick layers of impasto, providing a richly textured surface.

This work is among the earliest in a seminal series that morphed from "Heads" to "Prophets" in the following year. The three-quarter length frontal stance and direct gaze with distinctive circular eyes is characteristic for a handful of works from 1951. In a discussion with Homi Bhabha, Padamsee mentions his reasons for drawing the eyes in this style: "they give the face an expression, a look...It is as though the spectator does not feel that he is being looked at", to which Homi adds, "...the look or the notion of the gaze does not locate the viewer. He is not made to feel comfortable. He is, in a way, dislocated by the look of the work. It creates an anxiety rather than an identification." (Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella ed.,"figure and shadow: conversations on the illusive art of akbar padamsee", Akbar Padamsee: Work in Language, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, pp. 44, 46).

In conversation, Padamsee credits his inspiration to the study of early Indian sculpture. Art critic Geeta Kapur notes: "...the prototype of these early portraits was that magnificent little sculpted head from Mohenjodaro, the bearded man wearing a decorative robe." (Geeta Kapur, Contemporary Indian Artists, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1978, p. 88). She goes on to note how they evolve "into a prophet from the Semitic tradition... endowed with a concentrated, an obsessive, a greatly knowing presence" (Kapur, pp. 88-89).

During the early 1950s, Padamsee and Souza shared a similar affinity for "portraits" of isolated figures delineated with strong lines, often dressed with geometric patterned robes drawn from various cultural and religious sources. Souza would visit frequently from London (see group photograph at the front of this catalogue). In an interesting exchange of ideas, Souza seems to pick up on the concept of this figure in "Words & Lines" in 1959. Under the heading, "My Friend and I", he outlines a figure he calls Norman Evans, declares a poet of extraordinary mathematical structure and describes as wearing a "red and green diamond patterned harlequin shirt, like Balzac wore a monk's habit." (F.N. Souza, Words & Lines, Villiers Publications Ltd., 1959, pp. 22-23.). With eyes placed at extreme ends of the forehead, he becomes an all-seeing and all-knowing projection, a kind of court jester to society.

Writing about his figurative works such as the present lot, a contributor to Marg in 1952 notes, "Padamsee's paintings show exciting experimental qualities. Interested mainly in the human form, he produces an effect of great mystery and power by his use of sombre colours in broad masses... He is one of the young hopes of contemporary Indian painting." (S.R., "Akbar Padamsee", Marg: A Magazine of the Arts, Deepavali 1952, Volume VI Number 1, Mumbai, p. 39)

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