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“That which attracts us existed already, was a part of our memory and
like a phantom springs into the field of the eye – a sphinx of pleasure.”
AKBAR PADAMSEE
65
AKBAR PADAMSEE
(b. 1928)
Untitled
Signed and dated ‘PADAMSEE 65’ (upper left); bearing
Pundole Art Gallery label on the stretcher (on the reverse)
1965
Oil on canvas
35.5 x 35.5 in (90 x 90 cm)
Rs 1,50,00,000 ‒ 2,00,00,000
$ 223,885 ‒ 298,510
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai in 1965
Private Collection, Mumbai
Private Collection, Delhi
PUBLISHED:
Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella eds.,
Akbar
Padamsee: Work in Language
, Mumbai: Marg Publications in
association with Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, p. 144 (illustrated)
In the 1960s, Akbar Padamsee painted a series of nudes,
such as the present lot. He painted these solitary, figures
in luminescent, almost harsh, colours, with vibrant
brushstrokes – evoke an overall sense of alienation and
detachment. “The sharp, swift strokes of the impasto display
a certain aggression... These nudes are simultaneously erotic
and virtually inaccessible. The softened outline and the
glowing colour palette pose a radical departure from the
earlier cultish images, confirming the painter’s observation
that “Different forms are born of different orders, different
proportions and different libidos. Forms do not renew
themselves but the specific which ordains them assumes
new mathematical relationships...”” (Bhanumati Padamsee
and Annapurna Garimella eds.,
Akbar Padamsee: Work in
Language
, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art
Gallery, 2010, pp. 138, 140)
In keeping with this thought, Padamsee experimented—
through technique, form and vision—with the female
figure for over six decades, varying the theme each time.
“...these iterations and reiterations gain momentum like a
mantra. What may appear repetitive or obsessive is actually
a re‒visitation that further pares his imagery till he is able to
extract the bare essence of an idea/ideal. As he says, “That
which attracts us existed already, was a part of our memory
and like a phantom springs into the field of the eye – a
sphinx of pleasure.”” (Padamsee and Garimella, p. 140) The
present lot was painted in 1965, the same year in which
Padamsee was awarded the J D Rockefeller III fellowship to
travel to New York.
Present lot published in Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella eds.,
Akbar Padamsee: Work in Language
, Mumbai: Marg Publications in association
with Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, p. 144