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Lot Essay
Akbar Padamsee's ouevre is marked by distinct and developing series'. Renowned for his archetypal mythical landscapes, Padamsee depicts a world that is both real and transcendent, his forms often hovering on the boundary between abstraction and representation. Finding inspiration in the competing four elements: earth, water, air and fire, Padamsee's works connote no specific time or place and instead become mythical examples of the natural world.
After graduating from the J.J. School of Art in 1951, Padamsee left for Paris and became enamored by French Modernism. His works from this period bear stylistic influences of the Fauvist painter, Georges Rouault in his use of line. Where form dominated color in his earlier years, as is evidenced by his thick use of line, it is in the 1960s that the change to color over form is most noticeable. "Dual pulls of matter and spirit are always patent in his work... He sees his paintings as a bed of tensions created by 'the linear, the formal, the tonal, 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.)
In this seminal early work from 1963, the artist portrays a village scene of a sunset evening with a flaming ochre background and the orange houses leaning against each other. The use of a bold palette, particularly the diametrically opposite colors of orange and black, complement his choice of landscape as a subject, while his handling of color evokes a sense of movement in a static space.
After graduating from the J.J. School of Art in 1951, Padamsee left for Paris and became enamored by French Modernism. His works from this period bear stylistic influences of the Fauvist painter, Georges Rouault in his use of line. Where form dominated color in his earlier years, as is evidenced by his thick use of line, it is in the 1960s that the change to color over form is most noticeable. "Dual pulls of matter and spirit are always patent in his work... He sees his paintings as a bed of tensions created by 'the linear, the formal, the tonal, 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.)
In this seminal early work from 1963, the artist portrays a village scene of a sunset evening with a flaming ochre background and the orange houses leaning against each other. The use of a bold palette, particularly the diametrically opposite colors of orange and black, complement his choice of landscape as a subject, while his handling of color evokes a sense of movement in a static space.