Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | January 2008

175 138 Akbar Padamsee (b.1928) Horizon IV S/d in English ‘Padamsee 57’ l.r. Oil on board, 1957 35.7 x 23.4 in (90.8 x 59.5 cm) INR 8,400,000 – 12,000,000 USD 210,000 – 300,000 Literary Reference Same painting illustrated in: Kapur , Geeta. Contemporary Indian Artists . New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978; pl. 32. ‘His landscapes of this period were distinctly idolized as for example, Landscape (1956, pl. 32). Most of them were cityscapes, though seldom situated within recognizable time or place. A sealed hermitage somewhere perhaps, or a holy city of medieval times, illuminated by a golden light. There was nothing familiar or habitable about them. Although one could spot, here and there, steeples, copulas, and chimneys, there were no doors and windows to the buildings, no sign of life. This degree of idealization – one that he never applies to the human figure – made these cityscapes enchanting but at the same time strictly circumscribed…Akbar’s landscapes hold you in abeyance. They are materially concrete and in that lies their ancient secret that requires contemplation. And, as in their very concreteness they appear so remote, it seems as if the lements have congealed in the light of contemplation’. Geeta Kapur rpt. in Contemporary Indian Artists. Mumbai: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978; pp. 104 – 106. 139 Akbar Padamsee (b.1928) Landscape S/d in English ‘Padamsee 71’ t.l. Charcoal and watercolour on paper, 1971 29.1 x 21.3 in (74 x 54 cm) INR 1,600,000 – 2,000,000 USD 40,000 – 50,000