Osian's Auction Catalogue Select Masterpieces of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | June 2009

81 36 Akbar Padamsee (b.1928) Horizon IV Oil on board, 1957 S/d in English ‘Padamsee 57’ l.r. 36.0 x 23.8 in (91.5 x 60.3 cm) Condition Preservation work has been carried out in 2008 by Osian’s Conservation Department, Mumbai INR 5,600,000 – 7,000,000 USD 116,670 – 145,830 Padamsee’s scapes have registers, distinguished by colours. The tall buildings, houses, occupy the lower register while the upper distant register (ideational distance is created in spite of the flattened surfacial treatment) is almost set in an oblivion, ready to vanish, provides a spatial setting as well as time-cycle of day and night. The absent human figures from these embedded structures add to their rigid maze-like “sui-generis” existence. To see works from the same series ‘Horizon I’, Horizon II’ and ‘Horizon III’ refer to Padamsee (monograph) , Sadanga Series, Vakils. “…between 1956 and 1959 Akbar painted a series of landscapes and a few still-lifes…His landscapes of this period were distinctly idealized. Most of them were cityscapes, though seldom situated within a 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 signs 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...The earliest landscape brought to mind the little medieval towns of France.” – Geeta Kapur, rpt. in Contemporary Indian Artists , Vikas Publishing, 1978, p104.