Gulammohammed Sheikh

Born in 1937, Surendranagar, Saurashtra, Gujarat.

Gulammohammed Sheikh completed his Masters in Fine Arts, Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Baroda, Vadodara (1961). He received the Commonwealth Scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art, London (1966), and was later conferred an associate of the academy. He has taught art history and painting at the University of Baroda, and also served as a visiting artist at the Art Institute of Chicago, USA (2002); visiting fellow at Delhi University (2004). He has also been a writer/artist in residence of the South Asia Regional Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania (2000). He has been Artist-in-Residence at the Civitella Ranieri Centre, Umbertide, Italy (1998); Montalvo Arts Center, California, USA (2005).

He was awarded and honoured the Padmashri (1983) and the Padmabhushan (2014) by the Government of India. He is also recipient of the National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1962); Bombay Art Society (1961 & 1963); Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi, Ahmedabad (1961); Gaurav Puraskar (1996-97); Ravishankar Rawal Award by the Government of Gujarat (1998-99); Kalidas Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh (2002); Ravi Varma Puraskaram by Government of Kerala (2009); Gagan-abani Puraskar, Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan (2015). In 2010 he was conferred D. Litt. by Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.

He published his first set of poems, ‘Athwa’ in 1974, and is also regarded as a pioneer of modern Gujarati poetry. He has also edited a book ‘Contemporary Art in Baroda’, which culminates a decade-long research and documentation project.

His curatorial activities include ‘Benode Behari Mukherjee, Centenary Retrospective’, co-curated with R. Siva Kumar, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (2006-07); ‘New Art from India : Home, Street, Shrine, Bazaar, Museum’, City Art Gallery, Manchester, UK (2002); ‘Birth and Life of Modernity, selections from French museums’, co-curated with Geeta Kapur and Anis Farooqi, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (1989); ‘Retrospective exhibition: K G Subramanyan, on the occasion of award of Kalidas Samman to the artist, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1981); ‘New Contemporaries’ for ‘Marg’ and Indian Society for Art Appreciation, Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay (1978) and ‘Folk Arts of Gujarat’, co-curated with Jyoti Bhatt and Bhupen Khakhar, Ahmedabad (1967). He convened the Coomaraswamy Centenary Seminar for the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1977.

He has participated in various prominent solo shows and group exhibitions, more recently ‘Kaarwaan and Other Works’, at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi and Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai (2024); India Art Fair (2023); Frieze, New York (2021); Kochi-Muziris Biennale in (2014); National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (2013–14); Lalit Kala Akademi Galleries, New Delhi (2011, 2013 and 2014); Triveni Kala Sangam (2014); Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai (2013); Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong (2012); Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi (2012); Gallery OED, Cochin (2010); Chalo India, A New Era of Indian Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2008); Horn Please: Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art, Kunstmuseum, Bern and New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (2007); Edge of Desire, curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, shown at New Delhi and Mumbai (2006), New York, Mexico City, and Berkeley, California (2005) and Perth, Australia (2004); Crossing Generations: diVERGE , Forty Years of Chemould curated by Geeta Kapur and Chaitanya Sambrani at National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai and The Making of India, SAHMAT, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi (2003); Two-person show (with Bhupen Khakhar), Walsh Gallery, Chicago and Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2002) among others. His artworks are featured in the collections of National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Peabody Essex Museum, Virginia, USA; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan; and more, as well as several private collections in India and abroad.

The artist lives between Delhi and Baroda.