Known as a symbolic abstractionist, Prabhakar Barwe’s paintings seemingly came from the unconscious. The junction of form and space in his work creates new associations and meaning while giving the observer a chance to perceive the image subjectively. Influenced by the esoteric tradition of Tantric painting, Barwe is considered as part of the Neo-Tantra movement.

Prabhakar Barwe was born in 1936 in Maharashtra to a family closely related to art. In order to carry out the family tradition, he studied at Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai and received his diploma in 1959. As he was starting out, he was deeply inspired by Paul Klee, a Swiss-German artist. It was reflected in his early watercolors and works with floating motifs on a transparent surface done in a mostly symbolic mode. After his graduation, he experimented on the canvas by placing every kind of material that could be held onto it in an attempt to search for his individual identity as a painter.

Despite belonging in the twentieth century, an era preoccupied with modernism and materialistic tendencies, he tried to give emotional touch to the impassive surroundings and developed a metaphysical dimension in his art. His work presents ordinary objects having emotional and mystical associations, vibrating with poetic sensibility. Literal and conventional definitions were lost in his canvas, his paintings are subjective rather than objective.