“It seems to me that it is not possible to ever exhaust all possibilities of imaging the human head, each similar and yet so dissimilar. My ardent search is for a look, a gaze, an expression, a stance and a placement.” - AKBAR PADAMSEE

Although his style evolved since the first portraits he painted in the 1950s, Akbar Padamsee’s pursuit of figuration in his art-particularly the presence of the solitary figure-remained constant. As... “It seems to me that it is not possible to ever exhaust all possibilities of imaging the human head, each similar and yet so dissimilar. My ardent search is for a look, a gaze, an expression, a stance and a placement.” - AKBAR PADAMSEE

Although his style evolved since the first portraits he painted in the 1950s, Akbar Padamsee’s pursuit of figuration in his art-particularly the presence of the solitary figure-remained constant. As curator and art historian Annapurna Garimella explains, “Lone figures have allowed him the possibility for exploring the formal and existential meaning of space and the location of the human in it. Singular males or females appear to work on the canvas like architecture does to populate and perhaps acculturate a terrain. That is why his portraits... endow a monumentality and ponderousness to the figures.” (Annapurna Garimella, “Re-situating Akbar Padamsee: A Sociology of Figuration”, Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella eds., Akbar Padamsee: Work in Language, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, p. 90)

Padamsee’s figures from the 1950s drew upon the traditions of classical Indian statuary and medieval Christian art but gradually shed their rigidity by the end of the decade. By 1962, when the present lot was painted, the once prominent black lines had dissolved, giving way to less defined contours. While the figure retains the iconic frontal stance of his hieratic prophets, it appears more accessible and more human. Padamsee used his own reflection as a point of departure for his portraits, describing it as his “immediate inspiration.” He explained: “I draw my figures and forms from the world that I know intimately, but viewers also find there is a sense of detachment or alienation in them. My figures are not heroic creatures, nor are they angst?ridden, shattered beings. They exist, and on their flesh and bones is stamped the experience of living.” he explained. (Artist quoted in an interview with Paromita Chakrabarti, The Indian Express, 20 September 2015, online)

As the artist himself noted, his intention was not to convey a particular persona in his art but to examine the human condition. This philosophy also extended to his landscapes, such as lot 20, and later Metascapes. His figures are therefore largely anonymous and often set against nondescript backdrops, making them seem concurrently ephemeral and eternal. While they may appear remote or self?absorbed, they nonetheless exhibit emotions that define the human experience. Commenting on the present lot, Eunice de Souza writes, “Padamsee’s work is essentially that of a contemplative, which is not the same thing as saying that it is the work of an isolationist. Inwardness and contemplation combine with a continuing sense of search [...] Head (1962) almost appears to have a certain buoyancy. The shoulders squared against the world are shot with bright red, though the face is crumpled in a defensive grimace, as if he saw himself in some way as a clown. As so often in the paintings, the eyes are uncommunicative slits.” (Eunice de Souza, “Akbar Padamsee”, Akbar Padamsee, New Delhi: Art Heritage, p. 8)

While form took precedence over colour in his earlier years, in the 1960s Padamsee began making a noticeable shift in his focus, using colour rather than line to structure his paintings. He experimented with various textures and techniques, as evident in the present lot where the artist uses sharp, vigorous strokes of a palette knife to sculpt out his subject from the surface of the canvas. Reflecting on this phase, literary critic and journalist Sham Lal writes, “It is always the composition of planes and colours which give form to what Padamsee has to say. This becomes all the more clear in his paintings of 1961 and 1962…In Padamsee’s work colour is always subordinate to a structural basis. The texture of the paintings done in this period is by no means a superfluous detail; it is part of the meaning of the picture. It is not only the richer design of these paintings but their more mellow use of colour which distinguishes them from Padamsee’s earlier work.” Shamlal, “Padamsee”, Bhanumati Padamsee and Annapurna Garimella eds., Akbar Padamsee: Work in Language, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole Art Gallery, 2010, p. 328)

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