ARTICLE
Gulammohammed Sheikh (b. 1937)
He began showing his work at various All India Exhibitions as well as Baroda Group shows from 1957 onwards and mounted his first solo exhibition in 1960 at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai. Subsequently, his works have been shown at numerous exhibitions, including the Tokyo Biennale (1963); the Paris Biennale (1967); Rabindra Bhavan (1972); the 3rd Triennale India (1975); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1985); Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (1995); and the Singapore Art Museum (2007–08). His paintings are parts of the collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; the Victoria and Albert Hall Museum, London; and the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts. Sheikh received the Bombay Art Society Award in 1961 and 1963, the National Award in 1962 and the Kalidas Samman in 2002. He was also awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan in 1983 and 2014 respectively.
Sheikh is also a prolific writer, and his work is considered a seminal part of the modern Gujarati literature movement. He began writing poetry in school and produced a number of literary works, including Athwa: Poems in Gujarati (1974) and Gher Jatan (1968). He also edited and published Vrischik (1969–73), a literary periodical on art and ideas, along with Bhupen Khakhar. His other publications include Laxma Goud Monograph (1981) and New Contemporaries (1978).
Sheikh married artist Nilima Sheikh in 1971. At the time of writing, the artist lives and works in Vadodara.
Bibliography
Akkitham, Vasudevan. “Essence of My Art: Gulammohammed Sheikh in Conversation with Vasudevan Akkitham.” Sahapedia, March 18, 2020. https://www.sahapedia.org/essence-my-art-gulammohammed-sheikh-conversation-vasudevan-akkitham.
Chiu, Melissa, and Benjamin Genocchio. Contemporary Asian Art. Thames and Hudson, 2010.
Gujral, Diva. “The Art of Resistance: Gulammohammed Sheikh’s ‘Speechless City’ is About Refusing to Look Away.” The Scroll, January 1, 2020. https://scroll.in/article/948167/the-art-of-resistance-gulammohammed-sheikhs-speechless-city-is-about-refusing-to-look-away.
Krischer, Olivier. “History Through A Kaleidoscope – Gulammohammed Sheikh.” Art Asia Pacific, July/August 2013. http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/84/HistoryThroughAKaleidoscopeGulammohammedSheikh.
Sheikh, Gulammohammed. Contemporary Art in Baroda. New Delhi: Tulika Books, 1997.
Sheikh, Gulammohammed. New Contemporaries. Marg Publications, 1978.
Singh, Kavita. City, Kaavad and Other Works. Vadehra Art Gallery, 2011.
Sinha, Gayatri. “At Home in the World’: A New Book on the Artist Gulammohammed Sheikh.” The Hindu, February 22, 2020. https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/art/at-home-in-the-world-a-new-book-on-the-artist-gulammohammed-sheikh/article30880569.ece.