Celebrated painter and artist Akbar Padamsee died at the Isha Yoga Center near Coimbatore late on Monday night.
One of the most versatile and prolific artists of the modern age, Akbar Padamsee, a long-time resident of Isha, passed away at 91, owing to natural causes arising out of ageing. His last rites were performed at the Yoga Center yesterday.
Paying tribute to the artist, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Founder, Isha Foundation said “Akbar Padamsee, a genius of colour and craft, it has been our fortune to have you spend the last part of your life with us at Isha Yoga Center. Generations to come shall relish and be inspired by your magic of colour.”
For the last few years, Padamsee and his wife Bhanu were residents of the Isha Yoga Center. After having visited the Yoga Center a few times, they decided to move in there permanently.
Padamsee refused to fit into any artistic compartment and he had earlier said, “Do not label me or my art.” His paintings extensively depicted the elements and senses. “It is actually Shiva’s Metascape,” he said of a form he seemed to have a special affinity to. “I came to know about Dhyanalinga through books. The moment I saw the picture of the Dhyanalinga temple on the cover of a book, I knew that I was looking at a 21st century temple,” he had earlier said, referring to the famous yogic temple at the Yoga Center, a release from Isha said.
Though Akbar Padamsee was best known for his radical paintings, he was also a photographer, sculptor, film-maker, engraver and lithographer. But Padamsee was most recognized and decorated for his paintings which have found a place of prominence in eminent galleries in India and around the world. His brother was the celebrated late film-maker and ad-man Alyque Padamsee.
Born into a Muslim family, Padamsee embraced a free-spirited seeking that were reflected in the versatile themes of his work. He was deeply influenced by Vivekananda’s commentary on the yogasutras of Patanjali. He studied Shilpa Shastra, the ancient text on the art of sculpting and confessed to spending hours perfecting the dimensions that the text specified, a release from Isha added
Padamsee was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2010. He was also awarded Fellowships by the Lalit Kala Akademi and the JD Rockefeller Foundation apart from recognition by several global art bodies. The family took on the name ‘Padamsee’ when his grandfather earned the title “Padmashree” after he distributed his entire granary to his village in Kutch during a famine.
