Fine printmaking

Indian modern painter Akbar Padamsee will be showcasing a collection of his lithographs in an exhibition titled ‘A Life Less Ordinary”

Contemporary Indian artist Akbar Padamsee is back with his solo exhibition, after a gap of three years, in the capital. Curated by Priyank Jain of Dhoomimal.com, the exhibition titled “A Life Less Ordinary” will showcase 20 lithographs work by the eminent artist created between 2008 and 2010, depicting his long-standing preoccupation with figures, especially heads.

The Mumbai-based artist’s fascination for ‘heads’ began when he was just four years old. Talking about this exhibition, the 87-year-old artist says, “These lithographs are done in black and white around 2008. Since my childhood, heads and figures have always fascinated me. I recall making my first head image when I was just a four-year-old, in my father’s shop of German glass lanterns. Those were the days when I would draw faces in the margins of accounts book.”

Emphasising that eyes play a key element in his works, Akbar says, “For me, the most important feature of a face is constituted by the eyes — as they help in creating a ‘look’. In 1984, I created a bronze head with no eyeballs or pupils, yet the eyes were the most dominating feature of that artwork.”

In a career spanning over 60 years, Akbar has worked in every medium — oils, watercolours, sculptures, prints, computer graphics, photography and even filmmaking — and he has been enjoying every bit of his eclectic art practice and his signature style working with light and shade is consistent across mediums. But art enthusiasts and collectors love his ‘Metascape’ series and etching works in particular. “I have always been a printmaker and I don’t think there was any particular period when I moved into lithography. But yes, I have mainly done etchings though lithographs have happened simultaneously. I have always experimented within this medium and used marble, zinc plates etc on it. These works haven’t emerged from any period but have been a constant part of my art practice. Even as a child, I was familiar with lithographs. I was introduced to Raja Ravi Varma’s lithographs through a Hindu staff working in my home.

For this show, Priyank chose lithographs and I am happy about this because I have always wanted printmaking to be part of mainstream art discourse,” states Akbar.Talking about the inspiration, he says, “The immediate inspiration for these faces is my own. The first image we usually see is our face in the mirror and that is always a reverse image. It is both similar and dissimilar to the original and I think that is what captivates me. It’s like I open a door and see myself. It’s the first cognition of self. I have done mirror images in ‘Metascapes’ series also.”

He adds, “In the 70s, when I read Kalidas’ Abhigyan Shankuntalam and the idea of bimb pratibimb, I think that also reinforced in me the concept of reverse imaging, although I have to say I have been working on heads much before I read this treatise.”

Symbolising the life around us using different shapes of head, Akbar uses this intricate medium with the help of mutual repulsion of oil and water to create works of art. The image is drawn on the surface of the print plate with a fat or oil-based medium and then pulled under a press to print the desired image. He says, “I won’t call it a revisit, rather it is an important part of my journey as a printmaker.”