
"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" - Dadiba Pundole. Akbar Padamsee is considered an established artist who had started painting before Indian Independence. He is also regarded one of the contemporary Indian artists. The range of Akbar Padamsee varies from figure to non-figuration. He is such an artist who is tough to categorise. In fact for Padamsee it not the classification which is of importance, for his chief concern is with form, volume, space, time, & colour.
Akbar Padamsee was born in 1928 in Mumbai, India. This meticulous person obtained his graduation from Sir J.J. School of Art with a diploma in painting and series of sculpture in 1940. Apart from paintings he has also experimented with filmmaking, sculpture, and writing as an art critic. The colours he uses in his paintings move with pulsating energy, which makes him a master colourist. In his own words, "In those days, learning painting in that tree-studded campus was a heady experience". To an ex-professor of his college, he is "aristocratic intellectual, aloof from the usual hurly-burly of the school".
The most illustrious works of Akbar Padamsee are based on "metascapes", "mirror images", (non-figurative ), the figures & "heads". The maturity from landscapes can be regarded the metascapes. The dichotomies of creation, of form & space are reflected through his mirror images. The figures that are portrayed throughout his creations are not treated as an individual, but the connections between them are very strong.
As a celebrated artist, Akbar Padamsee has conducted and participated in many exhibitions like-- in 2006 Photographs, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 2005 Gallery Threshold and the French Embassy in India, Delhi; in 2004 Retrospective of Watercolors, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1997 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1994 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1993 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1992 Art Heritage, New Delhi; in 1986 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; 1980 Retrospective of works, organised by Art Heritage Delhi and Mumbai; in 1975 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1974 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1972 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1967 Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal; in 2006 CIMA Gallery, Kolkata; in 2005 Contemporary Indian Art, Nehru Center, London; in 2002 Saffronart and Pundole Gallery, New York; in 2002 `Words and Images`, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 2001 Saffronart and Pundole Gallery, New York; in 2001 `Engendering Images of a Woman`, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 2000 `Rare Collection` Guils Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1999 `Creative Process`, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1998 `Drawings`, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1997 Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1996 `Modern & Contemporary Paintings: One Hundred Years`, London; in 1995 Indian Contemporary Paintings, London; in 1994 Mirror-Image Series, Pundole Mumbai; in 1993 Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai; in 1993 Reflections & Images Jehangir Gallery; in 1992 Sanskrit Art Gallery, Kolkata; in 1992 Group Show with Laxman Shreshtha & Jogen Chowdhury, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1991 `National Exhibition of Contemporary Art`, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; in 1991 `State of the Art`, First Computer Art Show in Mumbai, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1990 Cymroza Art Gallery, Bombay; in 1989 `Timeless Art`, Mumbai; in 1988 Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1987 Festival of India in U.S.S.R, Moscow; in 1985 Indian Artists in France; in 1985 `Artistes Indiens en France` Foundation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques,Paris; in 1984 Contemporary Indian Painters, Raj Bhavan, Mumbai, organised by Pundole Art Gallery; in 1982 `Contemporary Indian Art`, Festival of India, Royal Academy of Art, London; in 1981 `India: Myth & Reality - Aspects of Modern Indian Art` Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; in 1981 Indian Painting Today, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 1968 Indian Triennale, New Delhi; in 1963 Gallery `63, New York; in 1959 Tokyo Biennale, Japan; in 1959 Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil; in 1958 `Seven Indian Painters`, Gallery One, London; in 1955 Venice Biennale; in 1953 Venice Biennale; in 1953 Galerie Raymond Creuse, Paris; in 1952 Galerie Saint - Placide, Paris.
As recognition to his talent, Akbar Padamsee has been conferred laurels like-- Kalidas Samman by the Madhya Pradesh Government for 1997-98; Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1969; Artist in Residence, Stout State University, Wisconsin in 1967; J.D. Rockefeller IIIrd Fund, Fellowship in 1965. He is a cousin of Alyque Padamsee, advertising genius and theatre personality.