A Report on Akbar Padamsee
Akbar
Padamsee:
Thinking through Art
A Report
Sania Glaundia
Akbar Padamsee: Thinking through Art
July 2013
Though very meticulous in his method, master colourist Akbar Padamsee’s drawings and paintings pulsate with throbbing energy. This is an artist whose work ranges from the figure to non-figuration; for Padamsee it not the categorization of his work which is of consequence, but rather its relationships with form, volume, space, time, and colour. He is acutely aware of every brush stroke; the process of creation is one of contemplation and articulation of thoughts and ideas. The main intention of art for him is the enquiry, a way of thinking, a way of integrating himself. Padamsee’s pioneering spirit has allowed him to experiment with a wide range of mediums: the gamut of the traditional ones to his recent experiments with photography and digital printmaking. Whatever his chosen medium, the artist conveys a command over space, form and colour. Although he is best known as a painter, Padamsee has experimented with film-making, sculpture, and writing as an art critic as well. His formal education was in the fine arts –
Padamsee graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1940, with a diploma in painting and series of sculpture classes behind him. An ex-professor from the school describes him as an
“aristocratic intellectual, aloof from the usual hurly-burly of the school,” showing a rare seriousness and sense of direction as an artist.
The most familiar works from his extensive oeuvre are the metascapes and mirror images, and the figures and heads, which he keeps oscillating between. The metascapes are a development from landscapes. As the eminent critic observes, “A sensuous immediacy and eternal remoteness, these form the dialectical counterpoints in Akbar’s approach to nature; the fusion and friction, the interpenetrating energy of the natural elements in contrast with their mesmerized visage. It
Padamsee:
Thinking through Art
A Report
Sania Glaundia
Akbar Padamsee: Thinking through Art
July 2013
Though very meticulous in his method, master colourist Akbar Padamsee’s drawings and paintings pulsate with throbbing energy. This is an artist whose work ranges from the figure to non-figuration; for Padamsee it not the categorization of his work which is of consequence, but rather its relationships with form, volume, space, time, and colour. He is acutely aware of every brush stroke; the process of creation is one of contemplation and articulation of thoughts and ideas. The main intention of art for him is the enquiry, a way of thinking, a way of integrating himself. Padamsee’s pioneering spirit has allowed him to experiment with a wide range of mediums: the gamut of the traditional ones to his recent experiments with photography and digital printmaking. Whatever his chosen medium, the artist conveys a command over space, form and colour. Although he is best known as a painter, Padamsee has experimented with film-making, sculpture, and writing as an art critic as well. His formal education was in the fine arts –
Padamsee graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1940, with a diploma in painting and series of sculpture classes behind him. An ex-professor from the school describes him as an
“aristocratic intellectual, aloof from the usual hurly-burly of the school,” showing a rare seriousness and sense of direction as an artist.
The most familiar works from his extensive oeuvre are the metascapes and mirror images, and the figures and heads, which he keeps oscillating between. The metascapes are a development from landscapes. As the eminent critic observes, “A sensuous immediacy and eternal remoteness, these form the dialectical counterpoints in Akbar’s approach to nature; the fusion and friction, the interpenetrating energy of the natural elements in contrast with their mesmerized visage. It
References: Interview by Rinky Kumar for Midday, February 7, 2013 3