Akbar Padamsee

Born in 1928 in Mumbai, Akbar Padamsee graduated with a Diploma in Painting from the Sir J. J. School of Arts in 1951, after which he moved to France and began exhibiting internationally. A founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group, he was known for his fiercely experimental approach and mastery over form, space, and colour, working across painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, film, and digital media. His practice evolved through distinct phases, most notably the monumental Grey Series, the abstract Metascapes, and the psychologically charged Mirror Images, alongside portraits, heads, nudes, and the Gandhi series created in 1997. Among his most celebrated works is Greek Landscape (1960) from the Grey Series, which set a world record for the artist at auction, firmly placing him among the highest-selling modern Indian artists. Padamsee received several major honours, including the Kalidas Samman, the Lalit Kala Ratna, and the Nehru Fellowship, and his works are held in prominent public and private collections in India and abroad. He lived and worked in Mumbai, where his studio remained an active site of intellectual inquiry and artistic exploration until the end of his life.