Investigating Prabhakar Barwe
The discovery of the motif below in the latest book (a reprint of the original but unavailable publication) in 2025 by Mauj Prakashan & Sonali Barwe lets us clearly identify this artwork as Prabhakar Barwe
Provenance
Arun Kumar Das was a personal friend of Prabhakar Barwe. Refer to his recorded interview transcribed elsewhere at Prinseps (parts of which have been largely edited out, being personal in nature). Arun had owned two offices- one in Worli, and one in BKC- The “Whispering Green” artwork used to hang in his Worli office, and this one in his BKC office. Both were with the family for several decades.
Arun Kumar Das collected artists affiliated with the Weavers Center, partly because Veera Das (nee Colabawalla) , his wife, used to learn block printing at the same institution. His collection included artworks by Prabhakar Barwe, Anand Mohan Naik, Ramesh, and Gautam Waghela, among others. He was close to both Prabhakar Barwe and Anand Mohan Naik. And he certainly collected multiple artworks, of all the artists mentioned above. Two Barwe’s from Arun’s collection that have been previously sold at Prinseps. The wife of the original collector is alive and in good health, and a very upright Parsi woman, and can confirm that the painting has been with them for decades, and Arun's friendship with the artists. Frustratingly, however, she has no idea about any details of the artworks.
Whispering Green (Signed)
Laboratory (Signed)
Unsigned?
The canvas has been kept uncleaned – the white on the edges are the original colour that is underlying. The greying is dirt that can be cleaned away.
This being an apparently unsigned work, it was kept aside for later. If only I had a chance to chat with Arun Kumar on this work- but he was already 83 years old was a very slippery slope with him in what he was able to remember.
Not all works of Barwe are signed (Ref: Saffronart Lot 69 Feb 2016 and others).
An Enamel Canvas Drawn in Negative Space
This is the crux / the construction behind many Barwe’s. Two types of paint with very different characteristics- and the enamel(background) is the upper layer. This is what is called “negative space” – that is your are defining the subject by painting around it and NOT by drawing it. Amongst his other peers at the Weavers Service center Barwe was the only one who executed his artworks in negative space.
Barwe’s thoughts on this:
“In our perception, any object is visible, while the space around that object is invisible. But space is not always invisible, because in actual reality we see space, that is, we at least perceive its color. Space seems invisible only in comparison to the form of the object. But if there is no object, then we see the form of the remaining space. Maybe, it does not have a shape, but its color is definitely visible. That is, basically we perceive the form of space only through color. We cannot imagine the shape of space. The reason for this is that due to the limitation of our visual capacity, we cannot see only space. That is why we generally consider space as invisible and consider the object or shape as visible.”
Luminosity Differences In The Two Layers
Enamel was the top layer. The difference in the bottom layer and the top layer can be seen clearly with a UV analysis – the layers show a different luminosity
Understanding The Motifs
It was only much later (almost a year and a half later and unfortunately almost two years after the passing away of Arun from a bad fall) that I was discussing this work with a good friend from the art auction trade - who immediately identified it (a gut feeling) as a Barwe. This led to the analysis that follows which should have been done ages ago in the first place.
Woman Reaching for the Moon
“Shape is multi-faceted. In the picture, it shows its many forms. Sometimes it spreads its wings and flies high in the sky or in space.”
“When a shape is near the center, its importance naturally increases, because it has a space around it. As a shape approaches the edges of the picture, its role changes.”
Moon / Pillar / Semi Circular Patterns
Man and Woman Silhouette
If you look closely at the yellow triangle – you suddenly observe silhouettes – on the left of a mans face and the right a woman !!
.jpg)
Can u make out the man and woman ?
Signature in an under-layer ?
Recently at a reference showing an interesting work was observed
Here, the signature is clearly part of an “under-layer”. Whether paint has been removed from over the signature by a conservationist is unclear. Note also the location of the signature.
What Lies Beneath ?
The x-ray results clearly show a “B” done in the same style as the ‘Laboratory’ painting and the hint of the signature before and after the “B”. The style of the written B that is seen in the x-Ray is consistent with the “B” seen in the ‘Laboratory’ work.
Next Steps & Observations
The work will be conservation framed. No clean ups, no restoration, no destructive peeling of the layers - just simply conservation framed. A Pigment Analysis at some point to confirm the age of the paint and compare to pigments from Barwe’s other artworks during the same period (likely from mid-late 60s)
References
कोरा कॅनव्हास प्रभाकर बरवे by Mauj Prakashan (2025)
