Akbar Padamsee
Akbar Padamsee maintained a critical distance from stylistic groupings, despite being associated with the Progressive Artists’ Group. His practice spanned painting, photography, filmmaking, and digital experimentation, unified by a sustained engagement with form, perception, and the philosophical function of art. His “metascapes” landscapes devoid of specific geography use tonal gradation and structured color fields to examine spatial logic and perceptual ambiguity. Earlier figurative works, including Heads and Lovers, explore existential themes through isolation and distortion. Padamsee’s interest in Sanskrit poetics and structural linguistics informed his approach to painting as a semantic system. His brief but significant experiments in computer-generated forms and his Vision Exchange Workshop (1969–72) indicate a commitment to interdisciplinarity. Padamsee’s contribution lies not in a singular style but in constructing a conceptual framework for art-making, where form operates as a mode of philosophical inquiry rather than representation.