Although he is best known as a painter, Akbar Padamsee has experimented with film-making, sculpture, and writing as an art critic. His formal education was in the fine arts and Padamsee graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1940 with a diploma in painting and series of sculpture classes behind him.
As an artist, Akbar Padamsee's work is difficult to define as his range of work is wide. Padamsee's main focus is with the form, volume, space, time, & colour. He is very conscious of every mark that he makes, the process of creation is one of contemplation and articulation of thoughts and ideas. Though very meticulous in his method of working, the colours in his paintings pulsate with throbbing energy, for he is a master colourist.
"While working he has a blank canvas on which he tries out everything before applying it to the final one, the reason for doing so is that he wants to avoid error" - this for Dadiba Pundole sums the whole persona of Akbar Padamsee and his works. An ex-professor from the J.J. 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 more familiar of his body of works are the "metascapes", "mirror images", (non-figurative), the figures & "heads". The metascapes are a development from the landscapes. The mirror images show his concern with the duality of existence, of form & space. The figures are not treated not as individuals, not even the heads, where the association with portraiture is even stronger. The only occasion when he has handled portraits, is in 1997, with the Gandhi series, done on paper with pen & ink, water colours & charcoals. Akbar Padamsee lives and works in Mumbai.
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