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A Padamsee
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Though very meticulous in his method, master colourist Akbar Padamsee’s drawings and paintings pulsate with throbbing energy. This is an artist whose work ranges from the figure to non-figuration; for Padamsee it not the categorization of his work which is of consequence, but rather its relationships with form, volume, space, time, and colour. He is acutely aware of every brush stroke; the process of creation is one of contemplation and...
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Though very meticulous in his method, master colourist Akbar Padamsee’s drawings and paintings pulsate with throbbing energy. This is an artist whose work ranges from the figure to non-figuration; for Padamsee it not the categorization of his work which is of consequence, but rather its relationships with form, volume, space, time, and colour. He is acutely aware of every brush stroke; the process of creation is one of contemplation and articulation of thoughts and ideas.
Padamsee’s pioneering spirit has allowed him to experiment with a wide range of mediums: the gamut of the traditional ones to his recent experiments with photography and digital printmaking. Whatever his chosen medium, the artist conveys a command over space, form and colour. Although he is best known as a painter, Padamsee has experimented with film-making, sculpture, and writing as an art critic as well. His formal education was in the fine arts – Padamsee graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1940, with a diploma in painting and series of sculpture classes behind him. In an interview with Dnyaneswar Nadkarni, he comments: “In those days, learning painting in that tree-studded campus was a heady experience.” An ex-professor from the school describes him as an “aristocratic intellectual, aloof from the usual hurly-burly of the school,” showing a rare seriousness and sense of direction as an artist.
The most familiar works from his extensive oeuvre are the metascapes and mirror images, and the figures and heads, which he keeps oscillating between. The metascapes are a development from landscapes, while the mirror images show his concern with the duality of existence, of form and space. The figure is treated not as an individual, not even in the heads where the association with portraiture is even stronger. The only occasion when he has handled portraits of known people, was in 1997, with his Gandhi series of works on paper in watercolour and charcoal.
Born in Mumbai in 1928, Akbar Padmsee has exhibited his works in several solo exhibitions, including most recently, ‘Sensitive Surfaces’ at Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris, in 2008; ‘Metascape to Humanscape’ at Aicon Gallery, New York and Palo Alto, in 2007; and ‘Photographs (2004-06)’ at the Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2006. From 1994 onwards, Padamsee has held several solo shows at Pundole Art Gallery ,Mumbai, including ‘Tertiaries’, ‘Compugraphics’, ‘Imaging Gandhi’, ‘Female Nudes’, and ‘Mirror Images’. Padamsee’s first solo exhibition was held in Paris in 1952 at Galerie Saint Placide.
His recent group exhibitions include 'Progressive to Altermodern: 62 Years of Indian Modern Art' at Grosvenor Gallery, London, in 2009; 'Faces' at Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, and ‘Freedom 2008 – Sixty Years of Indian Independence’ at the Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata in 2008. The exhibition, ‘Retrospective of Watercolors’, was held at Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2004, and another retrospective of his works organized by Art Heritage, New Delhi, in Mumbai in 1980. Padamsee was awarded the Lalit Kala Ratna from the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 2004, and the Kalidas Samman from the Madhya Pradesh Government in 1997.
The artist lives and works in Mumbai.
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Born
1928
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Mumbai
Education
1951 Diploma, Sir J.J.School of Art, Mumbai
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibition
2013 'Past Forward', Priyasri Art...
Selected Solo Exhibition
2013 'Past Forward', Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai2013 'A Visual Metaphor', Giclee Prints on Canvas at India Fine Art, Mumbai 2013 Presented by Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai at India Art Fair, New Delhi2013 'Lithographs and Photographs', Art Heritage, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi 2011-12 'The Body Unbound', Rubin Museum of Art, New York 2010 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 2010 'Body Parts', The Loft, Mumbai2010 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 2008 ‘Sensitive Surfaces’, Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris 2007 ‘Metascape to Humanscape’, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto 2006 Metascape to Humanscape’, Aicon Gallery, New York 2006 Photographs (2004-06), Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 2005 Gallery Threshold and the French Embassy in India, New Delhi 2004 Retrospective of Watercolors, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 2003 ‘Critical Boundaries’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 2002 ‘Drawing Show’, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai 2002 ‘Tertiaries’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1999 ‘Compugraphics’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai and Art Heritage, New Delhi 1997 ‘Imaging Gandhi’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1996 ‘Female Nudes’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1994 ‘Mirror Images’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1993 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1993 ‘Heads’, Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore 1992 Art Heritage, New Delhi 1992 Sanskriti Art Gallery, Kolkata 1988 Art Heritage, New Delhi and Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai 1986 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1980 Retrospective of works organized by Art Heritage, New Delhi and Mumbai 1981 Urja Gallery, Baroda 1975 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1974 ‘Metascapes’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1972 ‘Metascapes’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1967 Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal 1963 Gallery ’63, New York 1962 Kunika Chemould Art Centre, New Delhi 1960 Painting in Grey, Gallery ’59, Mumbai 1957 Galerie de Ventadour, France 1954 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai 1953 Gallery Raymond Creure, Paris 1952 Galerie Saint Placide, Paris
Selected Group Exhibition
2013 'Pioneers of Modernism', Sovereign FZE, Dubai 2013 'Nothing is Absolute: A Journey through Abstraction', The Jehangir Nicholson Gallery at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai
2012 'Talking Heads', Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi 2012 'Gallery Collection', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 2012 'Rewind , Review ... ', Gallery Threshold, New Delhi 2012 'Contemporary: A Selection of Modern and Contemporary Art', prsented by Sakshi Gallery at The Park, Chennai2011 'Form and Formlessness', Art Alive Gallery, Gurgaon 2011 'States of Departure: Progressives to Present Day', Aicon Gallery, London
2011 'POP: Progressives on Paper', Aicon Gallery, New York 2011 'Masterclass', Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi2010-11 'Figure/Landscape: Part Two', Aicon Gallery, London
2010 'Figure/Landscape: Part One', Aicon Gallery, New York2010 'The Progressives & Associates', Grosvenor Gallery, London2010 'Black and White', Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai2010 'From Miniature to Modern: Traditions in Transition', Rob Dean Art, London in association with Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai2010 'Black is Beautiful', India Fine Art, Mumbai2010 'Masters of Maharashtra', collection from Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi at Piramal Gallery, National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai2009 'Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art', Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2009 'Indian Art After Independence: Selected Works from the Collections of Virginia & Ravi Akhoury and Shelley & Donald Rubin', Emile Lowe Gallery, Hempstead2009 'Sacred and Secular', India Fine Art, Mumbai 2009 'Think Small', Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi 2009 'Progressive to Altermodern: 62 Years of Indian Modern Art', Grosvenor Gallery, London 2008 'Faces', Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai 2008 ‘Freedom 2008 – Sixty Years of Indian Independence’, Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata 2007-08 ‘India Art Now: Between Continuity and Transformation’, Province of Milan, Milan, Italy 2007 ‘Winter Show’, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto 2006 Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA) Gallery, Kolkata 2006 ‘Shadow Lines’, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 2006 'Drawing Show an Act of Art II', Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai 2005 Contemporary Indian Art, Nehru Center, London 2005 ‘Visions of Landscape’, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 2005 Ashta Nayak: Eight Pioneers of Indian Art', Aicon Gallery, New York
2005 Gallery Threshold, New Delhi 2004 ‘Anticipations’, Fine Arts Resource, Mumbai 2004 ‘Concept and Form’, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 2004 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 2002 Saffronart and Pundole Gallery, New York 2002 'Words and Images', Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 2001 Saffronart and Pundole Gallery, New York 2001 'Engendering Images of a Woman', Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 2000 'Rare Collection' Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 1999 'Creative Process', Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 1998 'Drawings', Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 1997 Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai 1997 ’50 Years of Indian Art’, Mohile Parikh Centre for Visual Arts (MPCVA), Mumbai 1996 ‘Modern & Contemporary Paintings: One Hundred Years’, London 1995 Indian Contemporary Paintings, London 1994 ‘Mirror-Image Series’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1993 Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai 1993 Reflections & Images, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai 1992 Sanskrit Art Gallery, Kolkata 1992 Group Show with Laxman Shreshtha & Jogen Chowdhury, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1991 ‘National Exhibition of Contemporary Art’, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi 1991 ‘State of the Art’ First Computer Art Show in Mumbai, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai 1990 Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai 1989 ‘Timeless Art’, Mumbai 1988 Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai 1987 Festival of India in U.S.S.R, Moscow 1985 Indian Artists in France 1985 ‘Artistes Indiens en France’ Foundation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques,Paris 1984 Contemporary Indian Painters, Raj Bhavan, Mumbai. Organized by Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 1982 ‘Contemporary Indian Art’, Festival of India, Royal Academy of Art, London 1981 ‘India: Myth & Reality – Aspects of Modern Indian Art’ Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Oxford 1981 Indian Painting Today, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai 1979 ‘Focus’, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai 1963 Gallery '63, New York 1958 ‘Seven Indian Painters’, Gallery One, London 1953 Galerie Raymond Creuse, Paris 1952 Galerie Saint – Placide, Paris
Participations
2013 'The Naked and the Nude: The Body in Indian Modern Art', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi 2012 'Modernist Art from India: Approaching Abstraction', Rubin Museum of Art, New York 2011-12 'Modernist Art from India: The Body Unbound', Rubin Museum of Art, New York 2012 'Small is Beautiful', Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai2012 'Art for Humanity', Coomaraswamy Hall, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai
2012 'Synergy 2012', 12th Anniversary Show, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai 2012 'Crossings: Time Unfolded, Part 2', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi 2011 'Ethos V: Indian Art Through the Lens of History (1900 to 1980), Indigo Blue Art, Singapore
2011 'Time Unfolded', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi2010 'Art Celebrates 2010', represented by Gallery Threshold at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi to coincide with the hosting of the Commonwealth Games 2010 'Master’s Corner', organized by Indian Contemporary Art Journal at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; India International Art Fair, New Delhi 2010 'Contemporary Printmaking In India', presented by Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai 2010 'Manifestations IV', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi2009 'Miniature Format Show 2009 - IInd Part', Sans Tache Gallery, Mumbai 2008-09 ‘Expanding Horizons: Contemporary Indian Art’, Traveling Exhibition presented by Bodhi Art at Ravinder Natya Mandir, P.L.Despande Kala Academy Art Gallery, Mumbai; Sant Dyaneshwar Natya Sankul Art Gallery, Amravati; Platinum Jubilee Hall, Nagpur; Tapadia Natya Mandir Sports Hall, Aurangabad; Hirachand Nemchand Vachanalay’s, Solapur; Acharya Vidyanand Sanskrutik Bhavan, Kolhapur; PGSR Sabhagriha, SNDT, Pune; Sarvajanik Vachanalaya Hall, Nasik 2008 'Harvest 2008', organized by Arushi Arts at The Stainless Gallery, New Delhi 2008 ‘The Miniature Format Show – Part I’, Sans Tache, Mumbai 1968 Indian Triennale, New Delhi 1963 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy 1963 3rd Paris Biennale, Paris 1961 2nd Paris Biennale, Paris 1959 Tokyo Biennale, Japan 1959 Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil 1955 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy 1953 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
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Akbar Padamsee: “Our greatest strength is our chaos!”
Akbar Padamsee's oeuvre straddles the world of paints and canvas as well as that of photography and digital art. He held his first digital art show in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai in January 2000. Widely regarded in Indian art circles as a formal and even conservative painter, this shift to computer art surprised everyone. His oils have been...
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Read More
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Akbar Padamsee: “Our greatest strength is our chaos!”
Akbar Padamsee's oeuvre straddles the world of paints and canvas as well as that of photography and digital art. He held his first digital art show in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai in January 2000. Widely regarded in Indian art circles as a formal and even conservative painter, this shift to computer art surprised everyone. His oils have been characterised by an incandescent gravity, his drawings by an austere grace. A member of the first generation of post-colonial Indian artists, which sought cosmopolitan freedom in Paris and London during the 1950s and 1960s, he is seen to have developed his images within the genres of portraiture and landscape as refracted through the prism of high modernism.
In this 2000 interview, Akbar Padamsee talks to Rini Shah about his new found love for computer graphics and his art:
Q. How did you begin work on the new virtual images?
I began using computers as a medium some two years ago. In the beginning I simply scanned my paintings or tried to paint using the mouse. There is a digitally filtered evenness to everything you do on the computer. I tried to balance that with the tonal and texture variations of my art.Most Indian artists working with digital art in India are just reproducing their works on computer. What I tried to do was explore geometrical forms.
Q.You painted them with a mouse?
No for these I did not use the mouse. All the forms were based on the mathematical equations that I had fed into the computer. I wanted to explore the new technology and not just reproduce the old.
Q. How did you manage this transition from using your hand to paint to using technology? Didn’t you find that odd?
No because when I use the computer I am not drawing the image, but I am employing other artistic principles. Skill is important but being an artist is not just about having technical virtuosity. For instance the computer allowed me to make only very small images. So I thought of ways to extend the space. And when I looked at the Indian miniatures I found the answer. They were masters in space extension. Another thing I learnt from them was to increase the accent on the colors. I prefer more muted colors in my oil paintings, but on the small surface I increased the intensity. I used the gradation of colors to crate tonal variations.
Q. Aren’t you scared that the concept of the original will die with computer art? You can make so many reproductions using a computer?
I think we should throw concepts like originals out of the window. It leads to elitism of art. Films and music are mass-produced but they never create a problem.
Q. How do you recall your art school days in Mumbai?
My most favourite model in Sir J. J. school of art school used to be Venus de Milo. In many ways studying in JJ was like studying in a museum. My art teacher thought that reading in the library was a waste of time compared to totally devoting yourself to studio work. We were left alone to discover our individual styles.
Q. Your other major obsession has been human figures. What fascinates you about them?
I guess I was born with an eye for images. At the age of five, I so admired the colorful Raja Ravi Varma prints that hung in my ayah’s room that I borrowed one for my bedroom. I believe that one must be chosen for art and not choose it as just another option. I have always loved the human form. The human form in motion is exciting and sometimes when my models allow me to film them using my video camera, I shoot them in movement and later freeze and image and sketch it out.
Q. Will you ever work with installation art, which is so popular these days?
No it doesn’t interest me much. Ten years ago, it was narrative painting. Now, everybody’s doing installations and no one’s doing it out of any deep conviction. Art is imitating fashion these days. Like fashion pundits predict blue will be in this season or mini skirts will be out, something of that sort has crept into art. In India we had escaped this copying syndrome. Everyone was different but not any more.
Q. What do you think has changed since the time the Progressive Artist Group worked in the 50s and 60s?
Our great strength is our chaos. We have the power of disorder and in the midst of this, we can make great discoveries. But we are giving this up by adopting a superficial order system of the West. Instead we should discover our own path and a thousand flowers would bloom.
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A PADAMSEE WORKS CURRENTLY IN AUCTION AT SAFFRONART
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