A senior artist known for painting street life now depicts nuances of homely existence

Sudhir Patwardhan's fascinating figures are engaged in mundane actions; they reverberate with the pulse of humdrum urban existence with a touch of innate composure built in them. They tend to perform their errands in the highly, crammed, congested and busy city streets, construction sites or Irani cafés.

The senior artist builds in his paintings a realism that embraces the imaginary even as he looks to narrate grossly real and touching tales of survival. The narrative carries certain sameness, attached with the anonymous individual, perhaps a migrant confronted by the challenging existence in the city. The figures might be mundane, yet they are rightfully dignified by the effort they invest in the basic everyday acts of survival.

A new series of 40 paintings and drawings on view at Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) courtesy Sakshi Gallery marks a major departure in his artistic journey. They explore the various nuances of family life, mapping a range of expressions and feelings at various life stages. Many paintings in a new solo ‘Family Fiction’ by Sudhir Patwardhan hinge on a window that plays a key role. It opens the space of the closely-knit home to the outside – often to the city. Its frame is a threshold and the view of the cityscape through it can be alluring.

The feeling of being in one space, and looking out on another - of being well receptive to the outside, albeit secure inside - is depicted in the small ‘Window’ series of his painted works. However, the inside is not necessarily experienced as safe. Conversely, the allure of the outside may perhaps be that of release from too tight or rigid an enclosure. The window tend to allow a conjunction, either way, between the fine spaces of the inside & the outside, keeping the boundaries between them intact. The show also includes paintings (Migrant, Back, Injured, Jogger to name a few) that are closer to his earlier works.