Important Notice

"It seems to me that it is not possible to ever exhaust all possibilities of imaging the human head, each similar and yet so dissimilar. My ardent search is for a look, a gaze, an expression, a stance and a placement." - AKBAR PADAMSEE

Akbar Padamsee explored figuration throughout his artistic career, from classical forms in his early works to subtle, melancholic portraits in later years. Although his style and technique... "It seems to me that it is not possible to ever exhaust all possibilities of imaging the human head, each similar and yet so dissimilar. My ardent search is for a look, a gaze, an expression, a stance and a placement." - AKBAR PADAMSEE

Akbar Padamsee explored figuration throughout his artistic career, from classical forms in his early works to subtle, melancholic portraits in later years. Although his style and technique evolved, his attitude towards the genre remained constant. Skilfully bringing the emotions and thoughts of his subjects to the surface, he maintained an integrity that layers his works with complexity and meaning. Often solitary and rarely identifiable, the faces in his portraits are nonetheless real, exhibiting and evoking emotions that define the human experience. "I draw my figures and forms from the world that I know intimately, but viewers also find there is a sense of detachment or alienation in them. My figures are not heroic creatures, nor are they angstridden, shattered beings. They exist, and on their flesh and bones is stamped the experience of living." (Artist quoted in an interview with Paromita Chakrabarti, The Indian Express, 20 September 2015, online)

In the 1960s, Akbar Padamsee painted a series of nudes, such as the present lot. He painted these solitary, figures in luminescent, almost harsh, colours, with vibrant brushstrokes evoking an overall sense of alienation and detachment. "Lone figures have allowed him the possibility for exploring the formal and existential meaning of space and the location of the human in it. Singular males or females appear to work on the canvas like architecture does to populate and perhaps acculturate a terrain. That is why his portraits... endow a monumentality and ponderousness to the figures." (Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella eds., Akbar Padamsee: Work in Language, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, p. 90)

In keeping with this thought, Padamsee experimented - through technique, form and vision - with the figure for over six decades, varying the theme each time. "...these iterations and reiterations gain momentum like a mantra. What may appear repetitive or obsessive is actually a re- visitation that further pares his imagery till he is able to extract the bare essence of an idea/ideal. As he says, "That which attracts us existed already, was a part of our memory and like a phantom springs into the field of the eye a sphinx of pleasure."" (Padamsee and Garimella, p. 140) The present lot was painted in 1965, the same year in which Padamsee was awarded the J D Rockefeller III fellowship to travel to New York.

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