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Lot 60

 

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Akbar Padamsee has been painting portraits for several decades, and although his style and technique have evolved since the first series he painted in the 1950s, his attitude towards the genre has remained constant. Skilfully bringing the emotions and thoughts of his subjects to the surface without resorting to excessiveness, he maintains an integrity that layers his works with complexity and meaning. In the present lot, a sombre monochromatic... Akbar Padamsee has been painting portraits for several decades, and although his style and technique have evolved since the first series he painted in the 1950s, his attitude towards the genre has remained constant. Skilfully bringing the emotions and thoughts of his subjects to the surface without resorting to excessiveness, he maintains an integrity that layers his works with complexity and meaning. In the present lot, a sombre monochromatic portrait of a man wearing a tie, Padamsee uses thick layers of oil paint, applied with a palette knife, to literally etch the subject out of the background. The earthy palette of burnt umber and sienna used by the artist enhances the melancholy mood already set by the man's downcast expression. Nevertheless, the figure, like Padamsee's other solitary subjects, is not a victim. Rather, he strikes viewers as an intensely private man having weathered loss and sorrow at the hands of passing time.

“Sensitivity to the human presence has been Akbar Padamsee’s obsession, inspiration and the purpose of his art. Direct in a nearly-tactile way, but also sublimated and universalised, his heads...initially exude a feeling of almost-real persons. Gradually, however, they reveal themselves as distanced and generalised. Sometimes strong, even harsh in their impact, and sometimes indistinct and ethereal, Padamsee’s images are never portraits of identifiable people. In fact, they resemble a residual vision after an encounter.” (“Tracing Shadows of the Sublime”, Marta Jakimowicz, Akbar Padamsee, Works on Paper—Critical Boundaries, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2004, pg.9)

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