A Thinker’s Artist Who Explored the Intricacies of Existence
Akbar Padamsee is a first-generation Post Independence Indian artist whose work continues to leave a deep and lasting impact on people. He has worked right alongside some of the most important artists from that defining generation such as S.H. Raza, M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, and Ram Kumar to name a few. Akbar Padamsee is indeed a contemplative artist but he is not a recluse, he warmly opens up to a conversation, while the topic could be anything ranging from his own art to discussing theories laid about by Paul Klee. As an artist and human being, Akbar Padamsee disdained inertia and has constantly evolved with the changing times and experimented with newer and sophisticated mediums. His works have undergone different phases from figures to metascapes to computer graphics and photography. Here we take a closer look at his life events that shaped his artistic persona.
Born in Mumbai in 1928, Akbar Padamsee graduated from the Sir J J School of Arts in 1951, with a Diploma in Painting, following which he went to live and work in France. In 1952, he was awarded a prize by Andre Breton on behalf of the Journal d’Art.
He has participated in exhibitions and Biennales – Venice, 1953 and 1955; Sao Paulo and Tokyo in 1959; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford 1981; Royal Academy of Arts, London 1982 and National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, 1985.
Woman in Landscape – Akbar Padamsee | Opensea
Akbar Padamsee has a deep and abiding interest in Sanskrit texts, a glimpse of which finds resonance in his statement on sun-moon metascapes of the mid-seventies.
In an interview, Padamsee says “in the introductory stanzas of Kalidasa’s Abhijnanashakuntalam he describes the sun and the moon as the controllers on time – ‘ye dve kal vighattah’, and water as a source of all seeds – “sarva beej Prakriti”. I would never have thought of painting the sun and the moon together if it were not for this. I felt I could use the elements – water, earth, sky – without referring to any particular landscape – a metaphysical landscape”.
Early in life, he started copying images from The Illustrated Weekly of India magazine in his father’s accounts books at their store on Chakla Street, in South Mumbai. This is how he started his relationship with art. He studied at St. Xavier’s High School, Fort, and it was here that met his first mentor, his teacher Shirsat, a watercolorist.
He first learned this medium, followed by classes on nudes at Charni Road in preparation for his studies at the Sir J.J. School of Art. As a result, he was allowed to join the course directly in his third year. He was still studying fine art at the school when the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) was formed in 1947 by Francis Newton Souza, S. H. Raza, and M. F. Hussain. The group was to have a lasting impact on Indian art. By the time he received his diploma, he was already associated with the group.
His work is introspective; his “Metascapes” or his “Mirror Images” are abstract images formed from the search for formal logic. His topics include landscapes, nudes, heads and he has done portraits created in pencil and charcoal. Padamsee’s pioneering spirit has allowed him to experiment with a wide range of media, from oil on canvas to photography and digital printmaking.
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