Sudhir Patwardhan — Pune, Maharashtra, India.

In 2008, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Thinking Of Leger (1975), offered in the Contemporary: Spring Online Auction by Saffronart, which concluded on 13 March 2008 at Online, achieving a sale price of ₹48,59,003 ($120,153). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2025, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Five Figures (1976), offered in the South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art by Christie's, which concluded on 19 March 2025 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹6,53,95,209.6 ($756,000). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1999, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Running Woman (1977), offered in the Twentieth Century Indian Art by Christie's, which concluded on 05 October 1999 at London, achieving a sale price of ₹3,72,973 ($8,556). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1995, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Man Wearing Two Shirts (1978), offered in the Contemporary Indian Paintings: From The Chester and Davida Herwitz Charitable Trust by Sotheby's, which concluded on 12 June 1995 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹68,620 ($2,185). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

While paintings are statements, finalised through a complex interaction between invention and criticism, drawings are like thoughts, carrying the truth of the moment within them…If paintings are conceived as balance, drawings may be used to push images to extremes, and to test image against experience.

In 2000, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Street Corner (1986), offered in the Contemporary Indian Paintings: From the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection by Sotheby's, which concluded on 05 December 2000 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹5,05,440 ($10,800). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1995, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Artist and his Model (1991), offered in the Contemporary Indian Paintings: From The Chester and Davida Herwitz Charitable Trust by Sotheby's, which concluded on 12 June 1995 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹61,397 ($1,955). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1996, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Keralite (1992), offered in the Contemporary Indian Paintings: From The Chester and Davida Herwitz Charitable Trust Part II by Sotheby's, which concluded on 03 April 1996 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹1,36,548 ($4,025). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1995, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Chawl (1995), offered in the Indian Contemporary Paintings: Islamic Works of Art and Indian, Himalaya and South-East Asian Art by Christie's, which concluded on 16 October 1995 at London, achieving a sale price of ₹93,840 ($2,737). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1999, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Tree (1995), offered in the Twentieth Century Indian Art by Christie's, which concluded on 05 October 1999 at London, achieving a sale price of ₹2,65,225 ($6,085). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Sudhir Patwardhan’s creative thinking reflects the process an artist must struggle through and experience so as to create the coherent space within themselves whereby, say, the Passionatedetachment or Intuitive-logic of a situation or idea, is instinctively grasped, thereby pushing forward the mind and heart to come closer to grasping the holistic nature of oneself, one’s creativity, and one’s relationship with all around.

"This recent work (‘The Tree’) seeks to bring into painting the experience of the swelling forms of relief sculpture. The undulations of surface volume and the waxing and waning of sizes create a movement into and across the canvas. These works are in a sense attempts to bring the experience of conventions which have originated in other forms into the rectangular format painting that I practice. It is important for me that my painting be experienced as a single image. This is a legacy of easel painting and comes from a need to ‘stand and stare.’ This is tempered by movement across the surface which embodies the passage of time. The stilled moment of seeing, and the passage of time, both have to find a place in my work. When painters and theoreticians of the Renaissance developed the theory of perspective as a means of representing space correctly, they thought of it as an advance over the earlier modes prevalent in Gothic painting. When Cubists introduced a way of simultaneously representing different perceptions of objects in one image, they thought they were evolving a way more appropriate to a modern consciousness of the world. When Rauschenberg made a move from nature to culture with his flatbed picture plane, it was thought that representation of the visual world was forever problematised. None of these developments in fact invalidate an earlier mode, or prove it inadequate. They only indicate a changed view-point. They make a new proposition. The validity of the new or the adequacy of the old is still a matter of a significant relation to the lived experience of the artist and his audience.”

In 2004, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Errant Son (1998), offered in the Modern Indian Paintings: Winter Online Auction by Saffronart, which concluded on 02 December 2004 at Online, achieving a sale price of ₹5,33,469 ($12,064). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In this period [1997-2004], Patwardhan records his encounters with the human figure as an epiphanic presence, allowing archetypal narratives to filter through the everyday gestures of labour and struggle. His landscapes are phrased as invocations to the earth’s vitality.

In 2005, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (2003), offered in the Southeast Asian and Modern Indian Paintings: Including Contemporary Art by Christie's, which concluded on 29 May 2005 at Hong Kong, achieving a sale price of ₹21,50,990 ($49,403). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

The tension of this conflict between involvement and distance underlies all my work. The impulse to greater involvement pushes towards an ‘expressionist’ mode, while the impulse to distance myself from the subject leads to a more complex and ‘classical’ mode. Individual works are of course always a balance between these opposing pulls and reflect the dominance of one or the other need.

In 2008, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of The Clearing (2007), offered in the Contemporary: Autumn Online Auction by Saffronart, which concluded on 04 September 2008 at Online, achieving a sale price of ₹93,15,000 ($209,561). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.