Alphabet Stories II, 2002-03, Mixed media on paper pasted on board
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) presents a landmark retrospective celebrating the life and works of the eminent artist, poet, and pedagogue Gulammohammed Sheikh. This exhibition will be one of the most extensive showcasing of Sheikh's creative oeuvre of six decades and more, through a display of more than 190 artworks.
The Mappamundi Suit 7, Distant Destinations II, 2004, Gouache on inkjet print of digital collage
Sheikh’s art and extended creative engagement as poet, pedagogue, and author transcends sectionalised linear histories and fixed identities. His pictorial corpus has been enriched through referential excursions into the past and present of cultural and art history. Bringing to viewers his gouaches, oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, graphic prints to digital collages, accordion books, poems, photographs, ceramic sculptural objects to large-scale structures and installations such as the Kaavad, the exhibition will trace his artistic evolution from early explorations of personal memory and locale to monumental works that hold critical commentaries on current realities and celebrate collective humanity.
Kaavad: Travelling Shrine: Musings and Miscellanies, 2004, Wood painted with gouache, casein, text printed in silkscreen, laminated with melamine
Curatorially, the exhibition deciphers Sheikh’s multi-dimensional practice, especially through his modes of space-making, art historical referencing and evolving of a visual language enriched and nuanced by acts of story-telling. The retrospective will map Sheikh’s artistic evolution, beginning with his formative years in Baroda during the 1960s to his more recent works.
Fatehpur Sikri 5, 1970 Archival ink on Somerset enhanced (velvet) 100% cotton paper, photograph taken with SLR Pentax K5 black and white and colour 35 mm film – 1970
Complementing the artworks, the exhibition incorporates archival material, including Sheikh’s poetry, pedagogical writings, letters, and early publications, such as the magazines he collaborated on with Bhupen Khakhar. His sketchbooks and notebooks—filled with notations, preliminary sketches, offer a rare glimpse into his creative process, capturing the raw and instinctive nature of artistic ideation.
Kaavad: Travelling Shrine: Home, 2008 Boards mounted on steel structure painted in acrylic, oil and gouache, laminated with melamine and brass strips, digital print on paper and vinyl
Untitled, Oil on canvas
His prolific creative opus as a painter, poet and pedagogue has been the stimulus for this curatorial project that weaves together his 65 years of art-making, highlighting diverse themes and preoccupations, mediums and formats, and attempting to offer a holistic perspective on Sheikh’s significant contribution to the Indian art world and beyond. His pictorial sensibilities, historic knowledge and cultural consciousness articulated the need for ‘Indian modernism’ in the 1960s, along with a simultaneous comprehension of and a deep awareness of living in different times and cultures in India.
Horses, 1961-62 Oil and wax on canvas
Words Platform Desk
Date 09.02.2025