Akbar Padmase
Awards & Honours
- 1952: 3rd Prize for “Woman with Bird”, awarded by a jury headed by André Breton
- 1962: Gold Medal, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
- 1965: J.D. Rockefeller IIIrd Fund Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation
- 1967: Artist in Residence, Stout State University, Wisconsin, USA
- 1969: Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, Government of India
- 1997–98: Kalidas Samman (Plastic Arts), Government of Madhya Pradesh
- 2004: Lalit Kala Ratna, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
- 2007: Dayawati Modi Award, Dayawati Modi Foundation
- 2008: Roopdhar Award, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai
- 2010: Kailash Lalit Kala Award, Kailash Lalit Kala Trust
- 2010: Padma Bhushan, Government of India
Akbar Padamsee (1928–2020) was a leading figure of Indian modern art, born in Bombay (now Mumbai) into a Khoja Muslim family with roots in Gujarat. After receiving his diploma in painting from Sir J. J. School of Art in 1951, he moved to France, where his early exhibitions in Paris positioned him among an international avant‑garde. Closely associated with the Progressive Artists’ Group in Bombay, he helped redefine post‑independence Indian art by blending Indian visual traditions with modernist ideas drawn from Europe.
Exhibitions
- 1952: First Solo Exhibition, Galerie Saint-Placide, Paris
- 1954: Solo Exhibition, Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay
- 1960: One-Man Show, Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay
- 1975: Sun Moon Metascapes, Pundole Art Gallery, Bombay
- 1980: Retrospective Exhibition, Art Heritage, New Delhi and Mumbai
- 1993: Watercolors, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 1994: Mirror Images, Pundole Art Gallery, Bombay
- 1997: Imaging Gandhi, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 1998: Padamsee: Oils on Canvas, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 2002: Tertiaries, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 2003: Critical Boundaries (Works on Paper), Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 2004: Critical Boundaries (Works on Paper), Gallery 88, Calcutta
- 2004: Retrospective of Watercolors, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 2005: Sounds in the Wilderness, Gallery Threshold / Alliance Française, New Delhi
- 2006: Photographs (2004–06), The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 2006: Metascape to Humanscape, Aicon Gallery, New York
- 2007: Metascape to Humanscape, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto
- 2008: Sensitive Surfaces, Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris
- 2010: Body Parts, The Loft, Mumbai
- 2010: Oil on Canvas, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 2010: Oil on Canvas Board, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
- 2013: Past Forward, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai
Collections
- National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
- Lalit Kala Akademi Collection, New Delhi
- Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi
- Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation Collection, Mumbai
- Bombay Art Society Collection, Mumbai
- Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
- Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi
- Glenbarra Art Museum, Himeji, Japan
Over a career spanning nearly seven decades, Padamsee worked in an unusually wide range of media, including oil and watercolour painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, film, and later computer graphics. He became known for introspective portraits, luminous landscapes, and later “inscapes” and grey paintings that probed psychological and philosophical themes rather than simple representation. His contributions as an artist, thinker, and mentor were recognised with India’s Padma Bhushan, the Kalidas Samman, Lalit Kala honours, and several international awards, cementing his reputation as one of the most influential modernists in South Asian art.