Akbar Padamsee

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

ABOUT THE ARTIST

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.

Notification - We do not usually display Akbar Padamsee's work, only send it to private art collectors and interested art buyers.

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