Sudhir Patwardhan is a senior contemporary artist, born in Pune, Maharashtra in the year 1949 He went on to study medicine at the Armed Forces College Medical College, Pune After graduating in 1972, he moved to Mumbai where he took up painting This was followed by his first solo exhibition in 1979, held at Art Heritage, New Delhi - the art gallery founded by award-winning theatre director Ebrahim Alkazi The exhibition then travelled to Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai in the same year

He is best known for his paintings documenting city life and its many people His early works concerned themselves with the workers he often spotted on his travels through Mumbai - construction workers, porters, commuters and others His figures are seen going about their daily activities, but Sudhir Patwardhan continues to maintain an emotional distance as only an observer His proclivity for depicting the working class in his paintings has created a symbiosis of figuration and expressionism, resulting in what he likes to call ‘social expressionism’

His urban landscapes too are a continuing fascination for the artist, seen in moments of transition and in large scale, both serene and foreboding The heavily populated cityscapes he paints are reflective of his own experiences and are often seen with people who bustle in and out of the world he has created He often combines the affluence of skyscrapers with the realities of poor households - the juxtaposition an uncomfortable reminder of city life Sudhir Patwardhan has continued to chronicle decades of socio-economic issues in Mumbai, experiencing them and painting them differently as he adapts to an increasingly gentrified metropolis

Sudhir Patwardhan’s works have been showcased in over 15 solo exhibitions, to name a few Gallery Chemould, Mumbai (1994); Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore (2001) and Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi (2017) Most recently a retrospective of the artist titled ‘Sudhir Patwardhan : Walking Through Soul City’ took place at National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai in the year 2020 He has also participated in several international exhibitions including Aspects of Modern Indian Art, Oxford, UK (1982); Seven Indian Artists, Hamburg, West Germany (1982); Contemporary Indian Art, Festival of India, New York (1985); Festival of India, Center George Pompidou, Paris (1986); and Coupe de Coeur, Geneva (1987) His works are part of several important collections including National Museum of Modern Art, New Delhi, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal