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Lot Essay
Although Akbar Padamsee experimented with sculpture as early as his time at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay, it was only in the mid-1980s that he returned to the medium in earnest. Modelling and casting a series of heads in bronze, he exhibited these works at Art Heritage in New Delhi and Pundole Art Gallery in Mumbai in 1985-86.
“In [Padamsee’s] work, the element which was once provided by iconography now springs largely out of the expressive handling of material. Padamsee creates a metaphor for his own activity. Apart from their startling, sinister beauty, which stems from more than style or technical expertise, his sculptures have a striking power of penetration and hold the possibility of visualising a tangible object which defies identification as the surrealistic subconscious is dredged. Enigmatic as they are, each viewing results not in familiarity but in fresh discoveries. In the end we are compelled to seek out his work as if we needed it, and cherish it as some source of elixir.” (N. Ganguly, Akbar Padamsee, Work in Language, Mumbai, 2010, p. 171)
“In [Padamsee’s] work, the element which was once provided by iconography now springs largely out of the expressive handling of material. Padamsee creates a metaphor for his own activity. Apart from their startling, sinister beauty, which stems from more than style or technical expertise, his sculptures have a striking power of penetration and hold the possibility of visualising a tangible object which defies identification as the surrealistic subconscious is dredged. Enigmatic as they are, each viewing results not in familiarity but in fresh discoveries. In the end we are compelled to seek out his work as if we needed it, and cherish it as some source of elixir.” (N. Ganguly, Akbar Padamsee, Work in Language, Mumbai, 2010, p. 171)