Family is the inspiration
Sudhir Patwardhan’s universe is Mumbai; his engagement is with the people of Mumbai. Being a figurative artist he paints buildings and skyline as a mere backdrop for the characters in the vignettes of life that he presents on canvas.
Unlike the undifferentiated and anonymous violence on the streets depicted in his earlier canvases, in his latest show Family Fiction Patwardhan turns to the intimate relationships based on the family for inspiration, located within archetypical hearth and home. The thematic focuses on the fear, foibles and whims of middle class families living in the restricted apartment spaces.
The painter explores the spatial and mental interaction between the interiors and the world outside. One notices a visual emphasis on the streets and other apartment complexes as viewed from windows and balconies. A similar dichotomy between inner struggles and external demeanor of civility or otherwise is played out amongst the characters inside the apartments.
The paintings excavate the vast silences and distances of modern families, some literally like the Silence where an elderly couple is seated across the table, the man reading and the woman looking at nothing in particular in a state of perfect non communication and others in tableau like arrangement. Family Fiction, one of the larger works exemplifies the latter, with all the stereotypical characters of a fading grandfather, a rebellious westernised teenager, accepting tired housewife, sundry children and a shadowy but dominant male arranged around a room, with sexual overtones provided by a fleeting naked figure.
An autobiographical note is sounded in Family where a new baby brings joy and wonder in everyone’s lives and expressions. This provides relief from the dreariness depicted in most other paintings. A bit of whimsy and humour can also be witnessed in the painting of a young boy urinating against a wall with a shadowy face looking on.
Twisted forms and dark faces, silently screaming mouths depicted in the drawings exhibit a latent aggressiveness and anguish that appears sublimated in the paintings. The drawings are rawer, giving scope to the artist for catharsis on one hand and exploring the potential for aggression and other darker emotions on the other.
— Dr Seema Bawa is an art historian, curator and critic
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