Tracing a veteran artist’s life and career on the eve of his new solo

A highly respected and critically acclaimed artist, educationist and writer Gulammohammed Sheikh's work has spanned more than five decades, he is a founder-member of Group 1890, which was founded in 1963 by a group of artists. Through his work as an artist and educationist he emphasized the need for engagement with the historical narrative, and the importance in locating it within contemporary art, in order to build a critical discourse.

As a pedagogue in MS University of Baroda, initially as a lecturer in Art History (1960-63, 1967-80) and then as a professor in the Painting department (1982-93), he instilled in his students the rigor of art historical research, a discipline which he holds as central to his own artistic practice. As a writer he has published several books and monographs on Indian art, other than editing the Vrishchik journal of arts and ideas with Bhupen Khakhar, and contributions to Gujarati literature in the form of prose and poetry.

He has invested his knowledge further in the field by being part of several national committees and organizations in change of policy and institutional advocacy. It is under his curatorial authority that some of the most seminal exhibitions in the last three decades have been realized.

This includes ‘Benodebihari Mukherjee Retrospective’ (2006-7) co-curated with R.Siva Kumar, ‘New Art from India: Home, Street, Shrine, Bazaar, Museum’ (2002), ‘Birth and Life of Modernity’(1989) co-curated with Geeta Kapur and Anis Farooqi, ‘Retrospective Exhibition: KG Subramanyan’ (1981) among others. His solo exhibitions include ‘Mappings’ (2004), ‘Palimpsest’ (2001), ’Kahat Kabir’ (1998), ‘Pathvipath’ (1991) and ‘Returning Home’ at Centre George Pompidou (1985), apart from numerous group shows.

A new significant show by the veteran artist features some of his monumental pieces, including ‘CITY: Memory, Dreams, Desire, Statues & Ghosts: Return of Hiuen Tsang’ and ‘Kaavad: Home'. It also includes a selection of his gouaches, papier-mache works and oil canvases, alongside other 'Kaavad' shrines plus hand-painted and digital books. On the eve of the exhibition, we take a look at the artist’s life and career.