Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution in field of art.[2]
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 in 1987 and 2002, and a Writer/Artist in Residence at Civitella Ranieri Center, Umbertide, Italy (1998), at the University of Pennsylvania (2002), and at Montalvo, California (2005).[citation needed]
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 in London and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, USA. Ghulam has been active not merely as an artist but also as a teacher and writer.[citation needed]
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.[3]
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.[7]
Personal life
Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh lives with his artist-wife Nilima in Vadodara, India.
Awards
National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1962.
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, Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy, London,1982
^ abBrahmabhatt, Prasad (2010). અર્વાચીન ગુજરાતી સાહિત્યનો ઈતિહાસ - આધુનિક અને અનુઆધુનિક યુગ (History of Modern Gujarati Literature – Modern and Postmodern Era) (in Gujarati). Ahmedabad: Parshwa Publication. pp. 34–39. ISBN978-93-5108-247-7.
