AKBAR PADAMSEE (B. 1928)

Akbar Padamsee's Metascapes, begun in 1970, represent his long involvement with the landscape theme. As the word Metascape suggests, Padamsee is concerned with the mythic or archetypal landscape which is expressed visually by a stringent ordering of timeless elements, such as the earth, the sun, and the moon, in a temporal space.

The use of a bold palette complements his choice of landscape as subject with earthy tones and vibrant reds and yellows. The colors evoke a sense of movement in an unmoving space. Padamsee states, "...colours expand and contract, colours travel on the surface of the static painting... colour trajectory is strategy... A colourist needs to master the art of silencing some colours, so as to render others eloquent."
(Akbar Padamsee, India Myth and Reality, Aspects of Modern Indian Art, Oxford, 1982, p. 17).