Important Notice

"It's far more exciting for me as a painter, to work in grey or sepia. The brush can move freely from figure to ground, and this interaction offers me immense formal possibilities. As I was working on a large canvas I would structure it loosely with broad strokes of the brush, and only then place in the figures. Planes were created at a number of junctures where they intersected, introducing yet another dimension." - AKBAR PADAMSEE "It's far more exciting for me as a painter, to work in grey or sepia. The brush can move freely from figure to ground, and this interaction offers me immense formal possibilities. As I was working on a large canvas I would structure it loosely with broad strokes of the brush, and only then place in the figures. Planes were created at a number of junctures where they intersected, introducing yet another dimension." - AKBAR PADAMSEE

The present lot brings together key elements in Akbar Padamsee's artistic oeuvre: the figure, particularly the female nude that had a heavy presence in his works from the beginning, set within a grey landscape-a significant choice of colour palette rendered in masterful brushstrokes. Painted in 1960, a year after he moved from Paris to Mumbai, it was one among a series of monochromatic grey works that he painted that year, twelve of which were later exhibited at a monumental show at the Jehangir Art Gallery, and would lead to his recognition as a formidable artist in the modern Indian art space.

In works such as the present lot, he introduces the figure into the genre of landscape using the medium of grey plastic emulsion. In the Sadanga Series on the artist published in 1964, literary critic Sham Lal writes, "By restricting himself to greys, like the Chinese masters who confine themselves to the various shades of black, he strikes the richest vein of poetry in his art. In the paintings of 1959 and 1960 there is a lyrical intensity which comes from a passionate love affair. The affair is between the artist and his art." (Shamlal, Akbar Padamsee, Mumbai: Sadanga Series by Vakils, 1964, p. 7)

Works from this grey period that portrayed the female nude, including the present lot, were characterised by sorrow and suffering, according to Saryu Doshi. In her essay "Shades of Grey," Doshi writes about this work, noting that "...the mood is melancholic, the forms listless. Their pinched faces, drooping heads, and ageing bodies reveal that these women are victims of the vicissitudes of life. Weary and withdrawn, they have internalized their experiences into a constant ache which they seem unwilling, or unable to share with others. They remain unapproachable and remote." (Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella eds., Akbar Padamsee: Work in Language, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, p. 186)

In these works, Padamsee experimented with shades of grey corresponding to particular colours until he arrived at the desired intensity. As Doshi elucidates further: "He discovered that certain greys appear to tune with blue, others with green, and he decided to substitute those particular greys for the blues and greens in his compositions. In this way he succeeded in expanding his chromatic range and giving it resonance... His grey palette now ranged from the soft, pale, lustrous greys of silks and satins to the deep, dark, ominous greys of the monsoon skies." (Padamsee and Garimella eds., p. 180)

According to Padamsee, "When I did the Grey series, I was preoccupied with using singular brush strokes across the canvas without any interruptions. This was possible because I was using only grey and did not need to stop. There was no distinction of hue between the background and figure except that at one point it would emerge." (The artist quoted in Padamsee and Garimella eds., p. 180) The skilful adaptation of varying intensities of grey demonstrates his mastery over light, texture and tonal variations, making works such as the present lot all the more remarkable in its austerity.

A year prior to the painting of the present lot, Bal Chhabda, who had recently established Gallery 59, invited Padamsee to conduct a solo show of his works. The culmination of a year's work painting almost entirely in grey, the exhibition took place at the Jehangir Art Gallery in March 1960, and received glowing reviews from leading art critics, artists and collectors of the time. An article titled "Padamsee???s Return" in The Link read, "Last week, with an exhibition of 12 oils sponsored by Bal Chabda [sic] of Gallery 59, he [Padamsee] has staged a comeback with a bang. Here are some monumental paintings the like of which has not been seen in Bombay hitherto. Except one, all are painted in blacks, greys and white. Double life-size nudes are sprawled on canvases... They are no ordinary nudes. One is skeletal; one is sad, one is with a sardonic grin, one gaunt. Some of them have plain backgrounds, in which delicate brushstrokes create a sad aura... The nudes have no charm to offer. They are sad creatures, appearing as if through ground glass with an odd surface... What better colour than grey for depicting them? The nudes and the head studies have a terrific impact on the onlooker... Padamsee has established himself as a major painter with an individual vision and an ecriture all his own, with nothing borrowed from anybody and with something many may like to borrow and copy." (Staff reporter, "Padamsee's Return," The Link, 10 April 1960, p. 39) By the late 1950s, Padamsee had already gained recognition as an artist of international repute, participating in the Venice Biennale in 1953, and the Tokyo Biennale and Sao Paulo Biennale in 1959. The grey works firmly established him as one of India's masters.

Of the four large-scale grey works from the 1960 exhibition, Juhu was originally owned by M F Husain and subsequently lost, and the other two works have previously been offered at auction and entered important collections in India. In 2016, the monumental Greek Landscape (1960), an extraordinary painting with a panoramic view of the city and a signature piece in the exhibition, sold for a record-breaking price of Rs 19.19 crores ($2.9 million) at Saffronart. In 2011, Reclining Nude (1960), sold for USD 1.42 million at Sotheby's New York. The following year, Cityscape (1959), sold for USD 1.3 million at Christie's New York.

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