New Delhi, Oct. 9 -- In 1973, when Sudhir Patwardhan moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) from Pune as a 24-year-old medical doctor fresh out of college, he had his eyes trained on a long-cherished goal. It wasn't the promise of a thriving career in medicine that brought him to the big city. "I came to Bombay because I wanted to follow art," says the 77-year-old artist, when we meet in Delhi on a September afternoon. "That was not going to happen in Pune."

It is the eve of the opening of a major solo by Patwardhan at Vadehra Art Gallery. In Another Mode, curated by art historian R. Siva Kumar, features more than 250 sketches and drawings, made between 1970 and 2000. Executed with pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, oil pastel and other media, most of...