Search results for: 'artists born on this day'

The most definitive painter of the portraits of the Sikh gurus, Sobha Singh was born on 29 November 1901 at Gurdaspur in the Punjab. Interested in the arts since childhood, he learnt to draw and sculpt on his own, the early death of his parents depriving him of formal training in art. He joined the British Indian army as a draughtsman and continued to learn from studying the works of English and European artists. Learn More

Among the most accomplished watercolourists of modern India, Shyamal Dutta Ray was born in Ranchi, then in Bihar, and studied at Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, from 1950-55. He was a founding member of Society of Contemporary Artists in 1959, and of Painters 80, founded in 1968. Learn More

Renowned for his versatility as painter, sculptor, muralist, and architect, Satish Gujral was born in Jhelum in pre-Partition Punjab on 25 December 1925. His parents nurtured his inclination towards the creative arts while he was recovering from an accident as a child that cost him his hearing and speech. He trained at Mayo School of Art, Lahore, and briefly at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. He also came in contact with the Progressive Artists’ Group but parted ways to chart his own course in search of an Indian modernism. Learn More

Born in Calcutta, Sakti Burman studied at the city’s Government College of Arts and Crafts, and later at École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Like most other Indian artists who studied or lived in the French capital, Paris-based Burman’s works blend European and Indian imagery. Learn More

Born in Bangalore to the illustrious K. C. S. Paniker, the father of the Madras Art Movement and the visionary behind Cholamandal Artists’ Village, S. Nandagopal’s tryst with art, unsurprisingly, began early on. Just like his father, Nandagopal’s work was a synthesis of tradition and modernity. Learn More

A founder-member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Sadanandji K. Bakre was born in Baroda, Gujarat, on 10 November 1920. He obtained a diploma in modelling and stone carving from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, following which he was a pilot with the Air Force during the Second World War. Learn More

The search for abstraction in Indian art in the early years of Independence was born out of a desire among artists to attain an independent idiom of modernism. Rooted in the country’s philosophical and religious aesthetic, Prabhakar Kolte is among the leading practitioners engaged in this quest. A master of poetic and metaphysical abstractionism, Kolte received a diploma in painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in 1968. Initially, he freelanced as an illustrator, also working as a designer at Bombay Dyeing. Learn More

Born in Calcutta, Nikhil Biswas was an indefatigable art activist and a firm believer in collective action. A founder member of Calcutta Painters Group, Chitrangshu Group, and Society of Contemporary Artists, Calcutta, Biswas was committed to bringing about technical innovations as well as transformations in contemporary artistic thought. Learn More

Born into a family of artists in Lahore on 21 September 1897, M. Abdur Rahman Chughtai learnt to draw from his father, Mia Karim Baksh. He joined Mayo School of Art in Lahore in 1911, where Samarendranath Gupta, a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, was vice-principal. He obtained a diploma in photo lithography from Mayo School in 1914, where he went on to become the head instructor in chromo-lithography. He honed his printmaking skills during visits to London in the mid-1930s and exhibited his works across Europe; he also exhibited with Indian Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta around this time. Learn More

Born in Suri, Bengal, in 1937, Lalu Prasad Shaw obtained a diploma in painting from the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta, in 1959. Despite training in Company School art, traditional Kalighat pats and Ajanta cave frescos, Shaw evolved his distinctive style to work in watercolours and oil. His teachers were some of the leading artists of the time, such as Gopal Ghose, Rathin Maitra, and Maniklal Banerjee. Learn More

Krishnaji Howlaji Ara, a founder member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, was born in Secunderabad on 16 April 1914, but ran away to Bombay as a child. Much later, his skills as a painter were spotted by Austrian artist and art director of The Times of India, Walter Langhammer, who encouraged him in his artistic pursuit. Learn More

A founder member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Hari Ambadas Gade was born in Amravati, Maharashtra, in 1917. In his own words, he had a ‘compelling interest in science and mathematics’, as a result of which he graduated in science. However, he started making landscapes while on a visit to Jabalpur; subsequently, S. H. Raza guided him on the nuances of landscape painting. Gade eventually obtained a masters from the Nagpur School of Art in 1950.

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