Important Notice

Prabhakar Barwe's artistic career spanned three decades, during which he explored the nuances of form and space. His distinctive imagery draws from aspects of Surrealism and is based on placing seemingly random objects on an undefined background. These objects often appear to float in horizon-less landscapes, removed from their original context, thus taking on new meanings. The present lot exemplifies this esoteric arrangement of disparate,... Prabhakar Barwe's artistic career spanned three decades, during which he explored the nuances of form and space. His distinctive imagery draws from aspects of Surrealism and is based on placing seemingly random objects on an undefined background. These objects often appear to float in horizon-less landscapes, removed from their original context, thus taking on new meanings. The present lot exemplifies this esoteric arrangement of disparate, often recurring, images. Barwe was known for his affinity to enamel paint, which he applied in bold, flat patches, in colours that were deliberately subdued in his later works. "The manner in which he deployed his motifs or symbols, one felt that Barwe was aggressively making somewhat aphoristic statements. As they appeared to float in limbo, one was expected to undertake a sort of game of association dissociation, trying to weave a loose design out of those symbols." (Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni, "Prabhakar Barwe," bodhana.org, online)

"If we pay more attention, the surface of the work appears to be shifting, something ambiguous. Its appearance suggests an empty space, but it gains depth, almost casually as it were, as if it were leaving room for a "cloudy sky". The surface seems to move in mute agitation: a wavering light, some projected shadows, an ant passing by... The boxes appear truly empty. Open though they are, they retain impregnability. The trunks, burning with colour, lock their secrets within and withhold both storms and rainbows. So many objects that have weathered the elements, objects that roll through the climates of the canvas. Or rather, in a different formulation: these many objects which express an inner climate, and a stifling one. An inmost monsoon, but one withheld." (Gyan Panchal, the doorstep, Mumbai: Jhaveri Contemporary, 22 April - 13 June 2015, online)

The present lot from 1990, probably among the last works he painted before his death in 1995, is a testament to the poetic economy of the distinctive style he spent his career refining.

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