Akbar Padamsee

Born in Mumbai in 1928, Akbar Padamsee graduated from the Sir J J School of Arts in 1951 with a diploma in painting, after which he went to live and work in France. In 1952 he received the Andre Breton prize on behalf of the Journal dArt. Padamsee's first solo exhibition was held in Paris that same year at the Galerie Saint Placide.

Padamsee's pioneering spirit has allowed him to experiment with a wide range of media, from oil on canvas to photography and digital printmaking. Whatever medium is chosen, the artist conveys mastery over space, form and color. Best known for his Gray Series, Metascapes and Mirror Images, Padamsee has experimented with film and sculpture, and has also written as an art critic.

Padamsee's interest in structure and form takes shape from landscapes and stems from an interest in Sanskrit texts such as the Abhijanashakuntalam. His mirror images reflect a concern for the duality of existence. The portraits and heads of him are treated with the same interest in constructing the form as in the specific details of the portrait. The only time he created identifiable portraits was in 1997, with his Gandhi series of works on paper in watercolor and charcoal.

Padamsee has exhibited her works in several solo exhibitions including Past Forward, at Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai in 2013, Sensitive Surfaces at Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris, in 2008, Metascape to Humanscape at Aicon Gallery, New York and Palo Alto, in 2007. and Photographs (2004-06) at the Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2006. From 1994 onwards, Padamsee has had several solo exhibitions at Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, including Tertiaries, Compugraphics, Imaging Gandhi, Female Nudes and Mirror Images.

His group exhibitions include The Body Unbound at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York in 2011-12, Progressive to Altermodern 62 Years of Indian Modern Art at Grosvenor Gallery, London, in 2009, Faces at Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, Freedom 2008 - Sixty Years of Indian Independence at the Center for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata in 2008, Watercolor Retrospective at Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2004, and a retrospective of his works organized by Art Heritage, New Delhi, in Mumbai in 1980. Padamsee received the Lalit Kala Ratna from Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 2004, and the Kalidas Samman from the Madhya Pradesh government in 1997.

Prices for Padamsees' works continue to rise at auctions. Greek Landscape (1960), a seminal painting from his Gray Series, set a world record for the artist at the Saffronarts evening sale in New Delhi on September 8, 2016. The 4.3 x 12 ft canvas, estimated at INR 7 - 9 crores (USD 1 - 1.3 million), doubled its high estimate to sell for INR 19.19 crores (USD 2.9 million). The sale of Greek Landscape placed Padamsee among the top five best-selling modern Indian artists, including V S Gaitonde, F N Souza, Tyeb Mehta and S H Raza.

The artist died on January 6, 2020.

BORN

April 12, 1928 Mumbai

DIED

January 6, 2020

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

1951 Diploma, Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2013 Past Forward, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai

2013 A visual metaphor, giclee prints on canvas at India Fine Art, Mumbai

2013 Presented by Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai at India Art Fair, New Delhi

2013 Lithographs and photographs, Artistic heritage, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi

2011-12 The Body Unleashed, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

2010 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

2010 Body Parts, The Loft, Mumbai

2010 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

2008 Sensitive Surfaces, Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris

2007 Metascape to Humanscape, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto

2006 Metascape to Humanscape, Aicon Gallery, New York

2006 Photographs (2004-06), Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

2005 Threshold Gallery and French Embassy in India, New Delhi.

2004 Watercolor Retrospective, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

2003 Critical Limits, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

2002 Drawing Exhibition, Chemould Gallery, Mumbai

2002 Tertiaries, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1999 Compugraphy, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai and Art Heritage, New Delhi

1997 Imaging Gandhi, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1996 Female Nudes, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1994 Reflected Images, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1993 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1993 Heads, Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore

1992 Artistic Heritage, New Delhi

1992 Sanskrit Art Gallery, Calcutta

1988 Art Heritage, New Delhi and Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai

1986 Pundole Art Gallery, Bombay

1980 Retrospective of works organized by Art Heritage, New Delhi and Mumbai.

1981 Urja Gallery, Baroda

1975 Pundole Art Gallery, Bombay

1974 Metascapes, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1972 Metascapes, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1967 Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal

1963 Gallery 63, New York

1962 Kunika Chemould Art Center, New Delhi

1960 Painting in Grey, Gallery 59, Mumbai

1957 Ventadour Gallery, France

1954 Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay

1953 Raymond Creure Gallery, Paris

1952 Saint Placide Gallery, Paris

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017 Events in Vision Sharing Workshop Cloud Chamber Documents, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi

2013 Pioneers of Modernism, Sovereign FZE, Dubai

2013 Nothing is Absolute A Journey Through Abstraction, Jehangir Nicholson Gallery at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai

2012 Talking Heads, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi

Gallery Collection 2012, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi

2012 Rewind, Review, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi

2012 Contemporary A selection of modern and contemporary art, presented by Sakshi Gallery at The Park, Chennai

2011 Form and Formlessness, Art Alive Gallery, Gurgaon

2011 Progressive Starting States to the Present, Aicon Gallery, London

2011 POP Progressives on Paper, Aicon Gallery, New York

2011 Master Class, Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi

2010-11 Figure Landscape, Part Two, Aicon Gallery, London

2010 Figure Landscape Part One, Aicon Gallery, New York

2010 The Progressives & Associates, Grosvenor Gallery, London

2010 Black and White, Galerie Mirchandani Steinruecke, Mumbai

2010 From miniature to modern traditions in transition, Rob Dean Art, London in association with Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

2010 Black is Beautiful, Indian Fine Arts, Mumbai

2010 Masters of Maharashtra, collection of Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi at Piramal Gallery, National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai

2009 Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

2009 Indian Art after Independence Selected works from the collections of Virginia and Ravi Akhoury and Shelley and Donald Rubin, Emile Lowe Gallery, Hempstead

2009 Sacred and Secular, Fine Arts of India, Mumbai

2009 Think Small, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi

2009 Progressive to Altermodern 62 Years of Indian Modern Art, Grosvenor Gallery, London

2008 Faces, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai

2008 Freedom 2008 - Sixty Years of Indian Independence, Center for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata

2007-08 India Art Now Between Continuity and Transformation, Province of Milan, Milan, Italy

2007 Winter Exhibition, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto

2006 Gallery of the Center International of Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata

2006 Shadow Lines, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi

2006 Drawing Exhibition: An Act of Art II, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai

2005 Contemporary Indian Art, Nehru Centre, London

2005 Visions of Landscape, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

2005 Ashta Nayak Eight Pioneers of Indian Art, Aicon Gallery, New York

2005 Threshold Gallery, New Delhi

2004 Anticipations, Fine Arts Resource, Mumbai

2004 Concept and Form, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi

2004 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

2002 Saffronart and Pundole Gallery, New York

2002 Words and Images, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

2001 Saffronart and Pundole Gallery, New York

2001 Generating Images of a Woman, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

2000 Rare Collection Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

1999 Creative process, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

1998 Drawings, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

1997 Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

1997 50 Years of Indian Art, Mohile Parikh Center for Visual Arts (MPCVA), Mumbai

1996 Modern and Contemporary Paintings One Hundred Years, London

1995 Contemporary Indian Paintings, London

1994 Mirror-Image Series, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1993 Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai

1993 Reflections and Images, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1992 Sanskrit Art Gallery, Calcutta

1992 Group exhibition with Laxman Shreshtha and Jogen Chowdhury, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1991 National Exhibition of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi

1991 First state-of-the-art computer art exhibition in Mumbai, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1990 Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai

1989 Timeless Art, Mumbai

1988 Cymroza Art Gallery, Bombay

1987 Festival of India in the U.S.S.R., Moscow

1985 Indian artists in France. 

1985 Foundation Artistes Indiens en France Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris

1984 Contemporary Indian Painters, Raj Bhavan, Mumbai. Organized by Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai

1982 Contemporary Indian Art, Festival of India, Royal Academy of Art, London

1981 Indian Myth and Reality: Aspects of Modern Indian Art Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Oxford

1981 Indian Painting Today, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1979 Focus, Chemould Gallery, Mumbai

1963 Gallery 63, New York

1958 Seven Indian Painters, Gallery One, London

1953 Raymond Creuse Gallery, Paris

1952 Saint-Placide Gallery, Paris

PARTICIPATIONS

2013 The Nude and the Nude The Body in Modern Indian Art, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi

2012 Indian Modernist Art Approaching Abstraction, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

2011-12 Indian Modernist Art The Body Unbound, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

2012 Small is Beautiful, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai

2012 Art for Humanity, Coomaraswamy Hall, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai

2012 Synergy 2012, 12th Anniversary Exhibition, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai

2012 Crossings Time Unfolded, Part 2, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi

2011 Ethos V Indian Art through the Lens of History (1900 to 1980), Indigo Blue Art, Singapore

2011 Time Unfolded, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi

2010 Art Celebrates 2010, represented by Gallery Threshold at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, coinciding with the Commonwealth Games

2010 Masters Corner, organized by Indian Contemporary Art Journal at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India International Art Fair, New Delhi

2010 Contemporary Printmaking in India, presented by Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai

2010 Manifestations IV, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi

2009 Miniature Exhibition 2009 - Part Two, Sans Tache Gallery, Mumbai

2008-09 Expanding Horizons Contemporary Indian Art, traveling exhibition presented by Bodhi Art at Ravinder Natya Mandir, P.L.Despande Kala Academy Art Gallery, Mumbai, Sant Dyaneshwar Natya Sankul Art Gallery, Amravati, Platinum Jubilee Hall, Nagpur, Tapadia Natya Mandir Sports Hall, Aurangabad, Hirachand Nemchand Vachanalays, Solapur, Acharya Vidyanand Sanskrutik Bhavan, Kolhapur, PGSR Sabhagriha, SNDT, Pune, Sarvajanik Vachanalaya Hall, Nasik

2008 Harvest 2008, organized by Arushi Arts at The Stainless Gallery, New Delhi

2008 The Miniature Format Show - Part I, Sans Tache, Mumbai

1968 Indian Triennale, New Delhi

1963 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

1963 3rd Paris Biennale, Paris

1961 2nd Paris Biennale, Paris

1959 Tokyo Biennale, Japan

1959 Sao Paulo Biennial, Brazil

1955 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

1953 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

HONORS AND AWARD

2010 Padma Bhushan of the Government of India

2010 Kailash Lalit Kala Award, New Delhi

2008 Roopdhar, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai

Dayawati Modi Award 2007

2004 Lalit Kala Ratna, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

1997-98 Kalidas Samman for Madhya Pradesh government

1969 Jawaharlal Nehru Scholarship

1967 Artist in Residence, Stout State University, Wisconsin.

1965 Third J.D. Fund Rockefeller, Scholarship

artist akbar padamsee paintings