Akbar Padamsee (India, b. 1928)


Untitled (Metascape) Signed 'PADAMSEE' and dated '83 upper leftOil on canvas122 x 183cm (48 1/16 x 72 1/16in).
|Provenance:Private Collection, Dubai;Sotheby's, Indian Art, 2 May 2008, Lot 41;Private Collection, Europe;Private Collection, Dubai, Acquired directly from the artist in 1983.After graduating from the Sir J J School of Arts in 1951, Padamsee, like fellow painter Raza, travelled to Paris. It was here, after an exhibition, Padamsee was awarded a prize by André Breton on behalf of the Journal d'Art. Raza, among others of the Progressive Artists' Group had a big impact on Padamsee and his works. In Paris he also met many other artists who would also have a lasting influence on him. He has exhibited widely throughout India and America and received numerous prizes such as the Lalit Kala Akademi Fellowship in 1962, Rockefeller Foundation scholarship in 1965, the Kalidas Samman in 1997 and the Lalit Kala Ratna in 2004. Among his many awards and exhibitions his works are regularly sought after at auction. A master of many mediums, Padamsee has leant his hand to many artistic mediums including oil painting, photography, film and digital printmaking. In painting, his "Metascapes" such as this one are a recurring style. He uses strong colour to define space and form as in this case shades of blue and white are used to demonstrate the fast flowing river through a landscape of red, brown and ochre hills. The clouds are dabbled shades of grey, beige and white. Padamsee states, "...colours expand and contract, colours travel on the surface of the static painting... colour trajectory is strategy... A colourist needs to master the art of silencing some colours, so as to render others eloquent."(Akbar Padamsee, India Myth and Reality, Aspects of Modern Indian Art, Oxford, 1982, p. 17).Akbar Padamsee began painting his Metascapes in 1970. These whimsical and poetic landscapes are mythic or archetypal landscapes are expressed visually by a stringent ordering of timeless elements, such as the earth, the sun, and the moon, in a temporal space. Padamsee has said, "The idea of using the (sun and) the moon in my metascapes originated when I was reading the introductory stanzas to the Abhijnana Sakuntalam, where Kalidasa speaks of the eight visible forms of Lord Siva without mentioning them by name. For instance, he suggests the sun and the moon as the controllers of time. It is by this process that the artist deals with reality; not by describing or naming, but by a superimposition of secondary and tertiary semantic planes upon the pictorial sign. A new form arises which belongs to the mind of the artist, not to nature. It exists on the mental plane as a distinct entity, to be recreated by the sensitive spectator." (A. Padamsee, India Myth and Reality, Aspects of Modern Indian Art, Oxford, 1982, p. 17)Padamsee discusses his process to filmmaker Laurent Bregeat. He first embarks on a rudimentary line drawing and then decides the direction of the brushstrokes and only then, segments into planes. His intention is to transfer the linear into the planar: 'Lines define the spaces, but the strokes of the brush define the planes, this is what gives depth to the painting.' (Akbar Padamsee - The Making of a Metascape, in conversation with Laurent Bregeat). These sublime compositions consist of, ' ... brilliantly choreographed planes of light and dark made in thick impasto which evoke mountains, field, sky and water. The controlled cadence of the colors breaks into a throbbing intensity as the artist in his most masterly works, evokes infinite time and space.' (Y. Dalmia, Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence, New Delhi, 1997, p. 17)Padamsee calls his metascapes 'two dimensional perspective'. He looks at the relationship between the primary colour and complimentary colour and avoids juxtaposing the primary with the complimentary. This work is a prime example of Padamsee's aptitude as a colourist and his deep understanding of the emotive impact of colours. 'Dual pulls of matter and spirit are always latent in his work... He sees his paintings as a bed of tensions created by 'the linear, the formal, the tonal, and the chromatic' on which the form describes itself or 'remains in a fluid potential state.' (Ella Datta, Akbar Padamsee Art Heritage 8, New Delhi, 1988-1989, p. 40)