The continuing debate of the ‘naked’ and the ‘nude’ in a country that celebrates its heritage with aplomb but rages furiously when an artist represents it, reflects personally in Akbar Padamsee’s life. Decades ago, a legal case of obscenity was filed on Padamsee’s painting, Lovers, which he successfully defended and won. In his distinguished career as an artist, Padamsee returned to the nude form intermittently, viewing it with a certain dispassion while finding in it a sense of proportion and natural grace.
published references
Singh, Kishore, ed., Mumbai Modern: Progressive Artists’ Group, 1947-2013 (New Delhi: DAG, 2013), p. 456 Singh, Kishore, ed., The Naked and The Nude: The Body in Indian Modern Art, Edition Two (New Delhi: DAG, 2015), p. 122 Ways of Seeing: Women Artists | Women as Muse (New Delhi: DAG, 2021), p. 228
Akbar Padamsee
Untitled
2000
Oil on canvas
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Akbar Padamsee
Untitled
2000
Oil on canvas
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