Goa, April 5 -- Vivek Menezes

It is Mumbai in the hugely impactful paintings throughout Sudhir Patwardhan's landmark solo exhibition Cities: Built, Broken that has been slowly touring the world, starting in London last October and scheduled to wind up in Kochi this September. Nonetheless, it was Panjim and Goa that kept coming back to mind when I viewed this stunning, searing, wide-ranging suite of works on its opening day at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Kala Ghoda on March 25th. My expectations were high - I believe (and have previously written) that Patwardhan is India's greatest living painter - and I still found myself transfixed, especially by the monumental show-stopper Built and Broken (2024) from which the exhibition gets its name...