Sudhir Patwardhan’s exclusive artwork Departure depicts the frailty of Mumbai as home

In July, Hindustan Times invited artist Sudhir Patwardhan to create an original work that centred around the theme of the Mumbai and the pandemic. The work is a line drawing titled Departure, and it is a visceral portrayal of three migrants with a child walking with luggage through a deserted street.

The migrant is not a new figure in Sudhir Patwardhan’s works. They are there in his 2014 triptych, Building a Home, Exploring the World, made for that year’s edition of the Kochi biennale. In it, the migrant is the first human to have the walked the earth driven as much by the impulse to migrate as by the need to settle; the migrant is also the astronaut in space, seeking to cross new frontiers. In Bhaiyya, Patwardhan’s 1999 painting of a poor migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh cut a dignified figure. In 2009, the migrant is a woman in a shapeless black shift looking upwards with a bleak expression.

Departure, pastel on paper, 2020(Sudhir Patwardhan)