Famous painter and artist Akbar Padamsee | Photo credit: S Siva Saravanan
The ongoing exhibition at the Triveni Gallery showcases Padma Bhushan, Late Akbar Padamsee’s passion for human figures and especially the human head. His wife Bhanumathi Padamsee has put together paintings made by the artist between 2013 and 2017.
Padamsee started working at the age of 21 and worked for 70 years. Though widely spoken of as a modernist, Padamsee continued to resist being labelled. He worked as a filmmaker, sculptor, photographer, engraver and lithographer.
Bhanumathi says she titled the exhibition ‘Lateworks’ because these are the paintings she made in her life after coming back from the ICU. In 2013, Padamsee had collapsed and was kept in the ICU for 27 days due to an overdose of anesthesia during surgery. Seeing his poor condition, the doctors suggested that he be taken out to watch the sunset and were also provided with a pencil and paper so that he could draw.
Artwork by Akbar Padamsee | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“In the ICU, he made 2 paintings – one for Nurse Lydia and one for Dr. Barve. Padamsee was on the verge of giving up, but the sunset and the sketches brought back his fighting spirit,” says Bhanumathi.
Made from water-soluble chalk, the exhibition displays a collection of 19 paintings by Padamsee. “The drawing is quick and intimate. It is as if these works are growing out of paper”, says Bhanumathi. “A confrontation with an illness in an artist’s life can change his work,” she adds.
There is a sense of isolation in the mounted drawings. Most of them are withdrawn and most have drawn faces, eyes closed, only a few are confrontational.
Bhanumathi says she will continue to host these exhibitions for the younger generation to become familiar with the life and works of Akbar Padamsee. Works are not for sale.
(Triveni Kala Sangam, Tansen Marg on February 18 from 11 am to 8 pm)