Satish Gujral

1925

Born on December 25 in Jhelum in present-day Pakistan; his father Avtar Narain is a lawyer who later turned Gandhian, mother Pushpa is a homemaker.

1939

Joins Mayo School of Art, Lahore. Exhaustive training helps him flower as a multi-faceted artist who would go on to create works in a variety of media such as oils, burnt wood, sculptures in metal, fibreglass and more.

1944

Wins an art competition organised by Burma Shell Company that gets him admission to Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay; has to leave the art school and the city in 1947 due to recurring illness.

1947

The artist is in Lahore at the time of Partition; his family leaves Lahore for Simla after helping out the last of the refugees migrating to India. The artist described the scenes in a 2014 interview: ‘I saw killings every day. My education was completed in January 1949, but I left Pakistan only after the last refugees had been transported. When I finished and moved to Simla, where I stayed for four years, I began to paint man’s cruelty to man.’ The horror of the Partition leaves a lasting impact on his life and art, giving rise to his well-known Partition paintings, such as Mourning Enmasse, capturing the grief and trauma associated with this epochal event.

1952

Goes to Mexico on a scholarship to study at Palacio Nationale de Belles Artes with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, considered widely a landmark event in the artist’s career that shaped his oeuvre and distinguished him from other artists of his generation; befriends artist Frida Kahlo, also the wife of Rivera. Meets renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Art critic and curator Gayatri Sinha says of Gujral’s Mexico experience to livemint.com: ‘It opened up a world of building façade decoration, the innovative usage of materials and what may be termed as a national narrative… national art with indigenous roots.’

1958

Makes his first mural for Gandhi Bhawan, Chandigarh. Wins Lalit Kala Akademi’s national award for painting, and then again the following year. Marries fellow artist Kiran.

1961

Shows his works in exhibitions in Cairo, Mexico City, Rome, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Montreal, Hawaii, and Tokyo.

1966-68

Shows his ‘Paper Collages’ in New Delhi, Bombay, New York, Helsinki, Stockholm and Madrid. The exhibition also travels to the Russia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil.

1960s-70s

Creates landmark murals in ceramics, tiles and machined steel elements for World Trade Fair, New York (1963), Baroda House, New Delhi (1964), The Oberoi, New Delhi (1964), Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi (1968), The Oberoi, Bombay (1972), World Trade Centre, New York (1972), Jain House, Frankfurt (1972), Diamond House, Antwerp (1974), Delhi High Court, New Delhi (1975).

1974

Wins the Lalit Kala Akademi’s national award for sculpture.

1979

Punjab state government honours the artist.

1980-83

Though not a trained architect, designs the much-acclaimed and awarded embassy of Belgium in New Delhi; as a result, he is granted license to practice architecture by the Council of Architecture, India; credits his training at Mayo School of Art and the outlook of its principal, John Lockwood Kipling, who believed all visual expressions were one and students were taught ‘to draw, to script, to draft’.

1984

The Belgian government honours the artist with Order of the Crown; the embassy building is chosen as one of the 1000 best structures of the twentieth century by the International Forum of Architects. Goes on to design the Goa University campus, UNESCO building and India Islamic Cultural Centre in New Delhi, the CMC complex in Hyderabad, Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, and the summer palace of the Saudi royal family in Riyadh; along with his architect son Mohit, he also designs Ambedkar Memorial, commissioned by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati.

1987

He is conferred with a fellowship of the Indian Council of Architecture.

1998

Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, confers its highest award, Desikottama, upon Gujral. Is honoured with Padma Vibhushan by the Indian government.

1993

Receives an honorary Doctor of Letters from Andhra University.

1997

His autobiography, A Brush With Life, is published.

Undergoes complex surgery in Australia to restore hearing.

2006

Satish Gujral: An Artography is published to accompany a retrospective of his life’s work at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

2016

‘A Brush with Life’, the last major retrospective of the artist’s work spanning his entire career, is held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.

2020

Passes away on March 26 in New Delhi.