56-57 / 168
56
57
Untitled
, 1995
Saffronart, 9–10 September 2009, lot 49
Sold at INR 1.88 crores (USD 391,000)
FROM METASCAPES TO MIRROR IMAGES
Using a colour palette of blue, red and brown, Padamsee’s landscapes transitioned to ‘metascapes’ rooted in neither time, space
nor location. Colours and textures developed into rich, saturated hues.
Classic Metascape
, 1961
Saffronart, Mumbai, 13 February 2015, lot 31
Sold at INR 1.56 crores (USD 255,738)
Untitled
, 1975
Saffronart, New Delhi, 5 September 2014, lot 30
Sold at INR 2.04 crores (USD 340,000)
The present lot is a diptych in which the two panels mirror
each other. It is a continuation of the imagined landscapes
of Padamsee’s “Mirror Image” series, offering a glimpse
into his meditations on time, space and the duality of
perception and reality through form, colour and texture.
Segueing from the Metascapes he painted in the 1970s,
Padamsee began working on the “Mirror Image” series in
1994. The idea of the mirror‒image as a device struck the
artist during his first experiments with printmaking, when
he saw the impressions created from a plate that he had
engraved. He recalls, “I was surprised to note that the print
made from the plate I had etched did not resemble the
original. The gestalt had changed. I started using a mirror
when working on the plate to figure out what the print
would look like. Looking at my face in this mirror, I realized
that what I saw was a mirror‒image, as unfamiliar as the
print from the etched plate.” (as quoted in Meher Pestonji,
Akbar Padamsee: Mirror‒Images
, Mumbai: Pundole Art
Gallery, 1994, unpaginated)
Exploring the relationship between an image and its
reflection further, Padamsee noted how the two could
be so similar and yet so different. Endless and eternal,
the mirror‒images “…include both a truly detached and
analytical approach and a fascination for tautological rules.
In the paintings the image prods the exercise, form being
distilled to reveal the ore. Curiously the endeavour is as
old as it is modern: the artistic pursuit of a philosophical
intent.” (Mala Marwah,
Lalit Kala Contemporary
23
, New
Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1979, p. 36)
Untitled
, 1994
Saffronart, 30 November ‒ 1 December 2016, lot 54
Sold at INR 4.2 crores (USD 617,647)