The retrospective of the 50 years of artist Sudhir Patwardhan’s works, Cities: Constructed, Damaged – 50 Years of Picturing Life within the Metropolis is a journey by means of the artist’s oeuvre, of discovering himself from his 20s, when he was beginning out, to the current when, as septuagenarian, he has made an area for himself on the desk as a up to date Indian artist of renown.

As one walks by means of the 2 flooring of the Durbar Corridor Artwork Centre the place the work are on present, one can not however acknowledge the privilege of what the present presents. Particularly the chance of chatting with the person behind the works. For Sudhir Patwardhan Mumbai has been a long-time muse, town and her individuals — the individuals on the locals, on the street, and people who inhabit areas that aren’t ‘seen’. 

His engagement with town, as an artist, began within the Nineteen Seventies when he moved to Mumbai (then Bombay) from Pune having accomplished his medical training. “I had determined that I needed to be an artist, so I moved to Bombay,” says Sudhir, who retired as a radiologist in 2005. As a lot as Mumbai was a tradition shock by way of the sheer variety of individuals, town left a deep affect, structurally, on the artist who had by no means lived outdoors Pune. 

The structure of town, due to this fact, informs a big a part of his work a lot in order that it has come to outline Sudhir Patwardhan’s creative oeuvre.  R Siva Kumar, the curator of this present, calls his relationship with town and its individuals as that of a “reflexive thinker and an lively interlocutor, not a passive chronicler”. Other than a number of solo reveals, he has participated in nationwide and worldwide exhibitions together with reveals at Oxford, UK (1982); Up to date Indian Artwork, Pageant of India, London (1982); and Coupe de Coeur, Geneva (1987). His work are a part of private and non-private collections comparable to on the Museum of Fashionable Artwork (New York), Kiran Nadar Museum of Artwork (New Delhi), Nationwide Gallery of Fashionable Artwork (New Delhi and Mumbai), Jehangir Nicholson Assortment (Mumbai) and the Peabody Essex Museum (US) amongst others.

 

The retrospective, he confesses, is a visit down reminiscence lane. Placing one collectively, he informs, is a large job for having to supply the works from non-public collections and galleries. Though a retrospective, Strolling By means of Soul Metropolis, was held on the NGMA, Mumbai, in 2019, this, he says, is the primary time he has been capable of see a few of his older works in a single house. He calls it a self-education, assessing his journey up to now.

Whereas the bottom flooring largely reveals his current works, the primary flooring has a lot of his earlier works, that are largely portraits. The shift is perceptible as soon as his Bombay years start. He paints what he observes, gorgeous oil on canvas works with a give attention to individuals together with Irani Restaurant, Truck, the Employee collection, Man with Cylinder and the Operating Lady. Then town turns into a focus round which individuals are positioned. Within the later works of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties we see structure discovering house on the canvas and other people grappling with town as in Clearing, Station Street, and Balcony as an example. 

The works post-2020 appear to show extra inward and introspective. Although his earlier work bustle with life, they’re marked by a sure solidness. The present works have an undertone of battle talking of discomfort with the occasions and the way in which town was rising.

“After the pandemic Mumbai modified, it doesn’t appear to be the way it did earlier. Although one is interested in the brand new, the outdated metropolis is gone. Roads are continuously dug up; there are metro pillars in all places …”  The disconnect with town, he says, began a lot earlier than, “I began feeling it from round that point, although it began a lot earlier than.” 

The 2002 riots, to be exact. “The connection between individuals was damaged due to it, interactions grew to become fewer. It led to intense self-examination, and led me to query the function of artwork. About what artwork may do, the that means of artwork. One realises that artwork can not change the world however nonetheless one hopes…”  

Battle Zone Studio is very telling. The portray reveals the artist’s studio in disarray with a sinkhole in the midst of it. He talks about being annoyed by the “heavy occasions, when the artist reaches a state when the studio turns into a web site of destruction.”    

Speaking in regards to the portray he confesses to being assailed by self-doubt. “As one will get older there are all these doubts. It makes you ask uncomfortable questions. Like I ask myself… ‘why did I consider myself as a spokesperson of the working class? Why suppose that they don’t have a voice? What’s the reality as illustration? The connection between realism and abstraction in artwork. One thinks about all these items and hopes there are some solutions!” 

The retrospective Cities: Constructed, Damaged, offered by the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi in affiliation with Vadhera Artwork Gallery, on at Durbar Corridor Artwork Centre concludes on September 28.

Printed – September 20, 2025 11:00 am IST