Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...

from

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the nin ...

, India. He was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

in 1983 and

Padmabhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service o ...

in 2014 for his contribution in field of art.

Early life

Sheikh was born on 16 February 1937 in

Surendranagar Surendranagar Dudhrej is a municipality in Surendranagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Dudhrej municipality is directly connected with Wadhwan city and Wadhwan municipality. Etymology Dudhrej was originally a nes (hamlet) settle ...

(now in

Saurashtra region Saurashtra, also known as Sorath or Kathiawar, is a peninsular region of Gujarat, India, located on the Arabian Sea coast. It covers about a third of Gujarat state, notably 11 districts of Gujarat, including Rajkot District. It was formerly a s ...

of Gujarat, India). He

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

in 1955. He completed B. A. in Fine Art in 1959 and M. A. in 1961 from

Faculty of Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwo ...

Maharaja Sayajirao University The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a university in 1949 after the independence of ...

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capi ...

. He received ARCA from

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...

, London in 1966.

Career

In 1960, he joined as a professor of Fine Arts in the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda. His teaching positions have included teaching art history in the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1960–63 and 1967–81,) and as Professor of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1982–1993). He has been a Visiting Artist at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...

in 1987 and 2002, and a Writer/Artist in Residence at Civitella Ranieri Center, Umbertide, Italy (1998), at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

(2002), and at Montalvo, California (2005). Sheikh has been a major figure in the world of Indian art for more than four decades. He has participated in major exhibitions all over the world and his works are displayed in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi,

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

in London and the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

in Salem, USA. Ghulam has been active not merely as an artist but also as a teacher and writer. His collection of Gujarati surrealistic poems, ''Athwa'' (1974) won him considerable critical acclaim. He has also written a prose series, ''Gher Jatan'' and edited special issues of ''Kshitij'' as well as ''Vishwamanav'' and ''Sayujya'' magazines. ''American Chitrakala'' (1964) is his translated work.

Style

"Sheikh's art is by its nature," writes Chaitanya Sambrani, "one that takes on task of narrating, and therefore, recreating the world. There is a close tie-in between this narrative and an act of mapping the world, which gives to the speaking subject the possibility of addressing the world as his/her own". Recently Sheikh had been working on the Mappa Mundi series where he defines new horizons and ponders over to locate himself in. Sheikh construes these personal universes enthused from the miniature shrines where he urges the audience to exercise the freedom to build up their Mappa Mundi.

Personal life

Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh lives with his artist-wife Nilima in

Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capita ...

, India.

Awards

* National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1962. *

Padmashri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferr ...

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

, 1983 * Kalidas Samman, Madhya Pradesh Government, 2002. *

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished servi ...

, 2014 * Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati, 2022

Guest Lectures

*
Among Many Cultures and Times
, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., 21 March 2013.

Exhibitions

* Solo Exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay, 1960 * National Exhibition, New Delhi, 1962 * The VII Tokyo Biennale, Tokyo, Japan, 1963 * Cinquieme Biennale de Paris, Paris, 1967 * 25 Years of Indian Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1972 * Contemporary painting of India, Belgrade, Warsaw, Sofia, Brussels, 1974 * III Triennale (India), Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1975 * Place for People (6 artists), Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay and Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1981 * Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, Festival of India, London, 1982 * Returning Home, Solo Exhibition (a retrospective selection of work from 1968 to 1985) at Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National d'Art Modeme, Paris, 1985 * Timeless Art, exhibition and auction, Times of India sesquicentennial at Victoria Terminus, Bombay, 1989 * Realism as an Attitude, IV Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan, 1995 * Two-person show (with Bhupen Khakhar), Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA, 2002

Publications

2017, 'Nirkhe te Nazar', a collection of writings on visual arts in Gujarati, Samvad Prakashan, Vadodara & Khsitij Sansodhan Prakashan Kendra, Mumbai. * Athwa (poems in Gujarati), Butala, Vadodara 1974. * Laxma Goud, monograph on the artist, Hyderabad, A. P. Lalit Kala Akademi, Hyderabad 1981. * Contemporary Art of Baroda (ed.), Tulika, New Delhi 1996. * Essays, articles and papers in 'Marg', 'Journal of Arts & Ideas', 'Lalit Kala Contemporary' as well as Hindi and Gujarati journals. * Exhibition catalogues of K G Subramanyan, Jeram Patel, Laxma Goud, DLN Reddy, D Devraj, etc.

Bibliography

Geeta Kapur Geeta Kapur (born 1943) is a noted Indian art critic, art historian and curator based in New Delhi. She was one of the pioneers of critical art writing in India, and who, as ''Indian Express'' noted, has "dominated the field of Indian contem ...

, Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy, London,1982 * Ajay Sinha, Revolving Routes, Form, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1983 * From Art to Life (interview with Gieve Patel for exhibition catalogue), Returning Home, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1985 * Timothy Hyman, Sheikh's One Painting, Returning Home (exhibition catalogue), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1985 * New Figuration in India, Art International, Spring 1990 * Geeta Kapur Riddles of the Sphinx, in Journeys (exhibition catalogue), CMC Gallery, New Delhi, 1991 * Kamala Kapoor, New Thresholds of Meaning, Art India, Quarter 3, 2001 * Palimpsest, interview with Kavita Singh, (exhibition catalogue), Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2001 * Kamala Kapoor in Valerie Breuvart (ed.) VITAMIN P : New Perspectives in Painting, Phaidon Press, London/ New York 2002 * Gayatri Sinha, The Art of Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Lustre Press / Roli Books, New Delhi, 2002 * Zecchini Laetitia, "More than one world: An interview with Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh", Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Vol. 53, 1-2, 2017

References

External links

Profile on Google Arts & Culture

Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh Archive on Asia Art Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheikh, Ghulam Mohammed 1937 births Indian Muslims Indian male painters Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts People associated with Santiniketan People from Vadodara Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda alumni 20th-century Indian painters Gujarati-language poets Painters from Gujarat 20th-century Indian male artists Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Gujarati