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One Man exhibition and subsequent trial, Akbar Padamsee

  • Akbar Padamsee’s solo exhibition in Bombay in 1954 was overshadowed by his arrest on charge of displaying obscene pictures. The subsequent court case drew support from across the art world.

  • One Man exhibition and subsequent trial, Akbar Padamsee

    Word Count: 8

  • One Man exhibition and subsequent trial, Akbar Padamsee

  • One Man exhibition of Akbar Padamsee at Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay with subsequent court case for alleged “obscene” paintings

  • Court Case
  • 29-04-1954
  • 04-05-1954

  • Akbar Padamsee’s solo exhibition in Bombay in 1954 was overshadowed by his arrest on charge of displaying obscene pictures. The subsequent court case drew support from across the art world.

    Word Count: 30

  • Akbar Padamsee  (1928–2020) was a pioneering modernist artist. His formal artistic language was based on an interplay between line and form. While many of his early works were concerned with the human body, Padamsee also worked on cityscapes and spatial renderings with architectural forms strung together.
    Padamsee was trained at Bombay’s J.J. School of Art (1948–1951). There he spent most of his time in the library, reading books on theory and Chinese painting. This was the time when the Progressive Artists Group (PAG) was formed and he interacted with its members. Padamsee also knew the Central European émigrés Emanuel Schlesinger, Walter and Käthe Langhammer and Rudi von Leyden. He did not think highly of Langhammer and in fact even considered that he was a bad painter.
    Padamsee was one of many South Asian artists who headed to Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Unlike others, though, he did not attend any of the art schools and instead used his time in Paris focusing on work and gaining maximum cultural exposure. During this time, his work was characterised by strong outlines and a pronounced two-dimensionality.
    In 1954, shortly after his return to Bombay, Akbar Padamsee held his first solo exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery. The Jehangir Art Gallery had only opened in 1952 and made a huge contribution to the Bombay art world. Within this exhibition, Padamsee’s mainly figurative paintings of male and female heads and torsos, male and female nudes, and cityscapes were initially received favourably. One day after the opening, however, his paintings Lovers I (1952) and Lovers II (1952) attracted negative attention and were censored by the authorities. When the artist refused to take the paintings down, he was arrested. He was released on bail that same day. The two paintings that caused all the fuss showed a male figure touching the breast of a female figure. The court case that followed set a precedent in India, with supporters such as Karl Khandalawala,  Rudi von Leyden, and others presenting expert testimonies which brought the court to judge in favour of the artist. Marg printed the entire judgement in its September issue the following year (Marg vol. 7, no. 4, September 1954, 90f). The art historical references that were used in the trial to to explain Padamsee’s artistic intentions and build a defence on behalf of the artist drew on classical Western art as well as on Indian art such as the erotic sculptures at Khajuraho.
    Akbar Padamsee’s case was argued along the lines and the idea of artistic autonomy and thereby defended modernist art in India successfully. Four decades later, M.F. Husain became the target of right-wing Hindu groups whose campaigns culminated in 2006 with threats of violence and legal prosecution. In Husain’s case, as in Padamsee’s, judgment was ruled in favour of the artist and against the charges of obscenity. However, the 1954 court case and Padamsee's nine-month fight for the right to paint and exhibit freely, left a mark on the artist which caused him to return to Paris.

    Word Count: 504

  • Invitation Akbar Padamsee Solo Show 29.04–4.05.1954, Jehangir Art Gallery (Courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee, Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai).
  • Solo show at Jehangir Art Gallery from 29 to 4 May 1954. (Courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee, Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai).
    Akbar Padamsee, Lovers, 1952, 157.5 x 81.3 cm, oil on board (Courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee, Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai).
    Akbar Padamsee, Lovers I, 1952, 136 x 110 cm, oil on board (Courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee, Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai).
    Akbar Padamsee, Lovers II, 1953, 121.92 x 60.96 cm, oil on canvas. (Courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee, Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai).
    Newspaper report, “Artist arrested for displaying obscene pictures”, The Times of India, 2 May, 1954 (Courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee, Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai).
    Newspaper report, “Alleged Obscene Paintings Given Back to Artist”, The Indian Express, 4 May, 1954 (Courtesy of Bhanumati Padamsee, Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai).

  • Dalmia, Yashodhara. “Akbar Padamsee.” Idem. Journeys: Four generations of Indian artists in their own words, vol. 1. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 101–117.

    “Judgment in the Trial of Akbar Padamsee for Alleged 'Obscene' Paintings”, Marg, vol. 7, no. 4, September 1954, pp. 90–91.

    Padamsee, Bhanumati, and Annapurna Garimella, editors. akbar padamsee: work in language. Marg publications, 2010.

    Wille, Simone. “Die künstlerische Moderne und vernachlässigte Initiativen.“ Kunstforum International, vol. 252, February–March 2018, pp. 94–101.

    Word Count: 65

  • Archival records from a series of personal interviews between the author and the artist, Mumbai, July 2017 (Private Archive Simone Wille, Wien).

    Akbar Padamsee Archive, Vinayak Aangan, Mumbai.

    Word Count: 27

  • Simone Wille

  • Akbar Padamsee

    Word Count: 2

  • Etchings, paintings (oil on canvas):  Lovers I, 1952; Lovers II , 1952; works on paper (charcoal on paper), newspaper reports.

    Word Count: 17

  • Court of the Presidency Magistrate, 16th Court, Esplanade, Bombay (now, Azad Maidan Police Club, 78/1, Badaruddin Tayabji Marg, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Area, Fort Dhobi Talao).

  • Bombay
  • No
  • Simone Wille. "One Man exhibition and subsequent trial, Akbar Padamsee." METROMOD Archive, 2021, https://archive.metromod.net/viewer.p/69/2951/object/5141-11941874, last modified: 07-09-2021.
  • Open Studio Evenings by Käthe and Walter Langhammer
    Salon
    Bombay

    The painter Walter Langhammer and his wife Käthe built an informal infrastructure to promote local avant-garde artists and regularly invited them to Open Studio Evenings at their studio.

    Word Count: 29

    TIFR
    University / Higher Education Institute / Research Institute
    Bombay

    The TIFR is one of India’s premier scientific institutions. Inside its buildings, scientists ponder over path-breaking ideas. Also, within its hallowed walls is a fine collection of modern Indian art.

    Word Count: 31

    Rudolf von Leyden
    GeologistAdvertisement SpecialistJournalistArt CriticArt CollectorCartoonist
    Bombay

    The advertisement expert, Rudolf von Leyden, became a major art critic and art historian in Bombay in the 1940s, advocating an urgent need for modernism in art in post-colonial India.

    Word Count: 30

    Emanuel Schlesinger
    Factory OwnerTechnical DirectorArt CollectorArt Critic
    Bombay

    The art collector Schlesinger provided primarily financial aid by creating working opportunities for young artists in post-independence Bombay, and initiated the corporate culture of buying art.

    Word Count: 26

    Marg. A Magazine of Architecture and Art
    Magazine
    Bombay

    Local and exiled creatives formed the Modern Architectural Research Group to publish a progressive journal of art and architecture in Bombay from 1946 onwards.

    Word Count: 23

    Iconic Photo of the Progressive Artists’ Group and Their Associates
    Photograph
    Bombay

    There are two versions of the PAG photo at the opening of M.F. Husain's first solo exhibition in 1950 (published in 1996 and 2003) and two narratives about the opening.

    Word Count: 28

    Jehangir Art Gallery
    Art GalleryAuditorium HallLibrary
    Bombay

    Efforts to create spaces for the democratic presentation, discussion and reflection of art in Bombay after independence led to the establishment of the Jehangir Art Gallery in 1952.

    Word Count: 27