拍品專文
Renowned for his archetypal mythical landscapes, Akbar Padamsee depicts a world that is both real and transcendental: finding inspiration in the four elements of earth, water, air and fire. Graduating from the J.J. School of Art in 1951 Padamsee left for Paris and became enamored by French Modernism. Form dominated color in his earlier years as evidenced by his thick use of line, though in the 1960s the focus on colour over form is most noticeable. "Dual pulls of matter and spirit are always patent in his work [...]. He sees his paintings as a bed of tensions created by 'the linear, the formal, the tonal, the chromatic' on which the form describes itself [...] in a fluid potential state." (E. Datta, 'Akbar Padamsee', Art Heritage 8, New Delhi, 1988-89, p. 40). In this seminal early work from 1963, the artist portrays a village scene enveloped by a flaming ochre sunset using a bold, contrasting palette which evokes a sense of atmospheric movement in a static space.