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Himmat Shah
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Himmat Shah was born in 1933 at Lothal in Gujarat. After initially training as a drawing teacher, he studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of M.S. University, Baroda, from 1956 to 1960. He was a National Cultural Scholar in 1956, and received a French Government scholarship to study etching at Atelier 17, Paris in 1967.
Shah was a member of Group 1890, a short-lived artists’ collective founded by J. Swaminathan. The then...
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Himmat Shah was born in 1933 at Lothal in Gujarat. After initially training as a drawing teacher, he studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of M.S. University, Baroda, from 1956 to 1960. He was a National Cultural Scholar in 1956, and received a French Government scholarship to study etching at Atelier 17, Paris in 1967.
Shah was a member of Group 1890, a short-lived artists’ collective founded by J. Swaminathan. The then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, opened the group’s first and only show in 1963. The group dispersed soon after, and each of its members, including Shah, continued their artistic practices with their own agendas.
Shah’s predilection for drawing was natural. Being an inexpensive, transformative and free form of expression, it appealed to him in his negotiations with form and space. If one looks at his early drawings closely, one discovers the skill behind the chaotic black lines. These works are never predictable, and deeply ironic in the manner in which they use a simple medium to interpret complex contemporary visual fields.
From 1967 to 1971, Himmat Shah designed and executed monumental murals in brick, cement and concrete at St. Xavier's School Ahmedabad. Since then, he started working on relief and sculpture in plaster, terracotta and ceramics. Shah’s sculptures in bronze and terracotta explore materiality, texture and the various ways in which reality can be presented. They internalize the built-in obsolescence of consumerist society. His gilded objects of clay have the traces of paintings on them and there are unreadable hieroglyphs gouged into his series of metal heads. These are self-mocking elements, speaking of age and decay.
Shah’s solo exhibitions include ‘Drawings and Sculptures’ presented by Studio Confluence at Jehangir Nicholson Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2007; a show at Saffronart and Berkley Square Gallery, London, in 2007; ‘Sculpture’ at Art Heritage, New Delhi, in 2002; and others held at Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2005; Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi, in 2000; Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, in 1994; the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1982; and Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi in 1973.
Himmat Shah’s work has been a part of many groups shows, including ‘Yellow Deity: Contemporary Indian Art’ at the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, in 1997; Rediscovering the Roots’ at Museo de la Nacion, Lima, in 1997; ‘Ninth Triennale - Seven Artists from the Collection’ at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, also in 1997; ‘Festival of Indian Art’, Moscow, in 1996; and the Biennale de Paris in 1967 and 1970.
In 2003, the artist was conferred with the Kalidasa Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. Shah has also received the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) Award, New Delhi, in 1996, and the Sahitya Kala Parishad Award, New Delhi, in 1988.
In 2016, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art held hammer on the square, a retrospective showcasing Shah’s famous terracotta sculptures, bronzes, and drawings, along with lesser-known murals, burnt paper collages and silver paintings.
The artist lives and works in New Delhi.
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Born
July 22, 1933
Lothal, Gujarat
Education
1966-7 Studied under S. W. Hayter and Krishna Reddy, Atelier 17, Paris 1956-61 Worked under Professor N.S Bendre, Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda 1953 Drawing Teacher's Course, Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016 'HIMMAT SHAH: hammer on the square...
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016 'HIMMAT SHAH: hammer on the square A Retrospective (1957-2015)', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi
2007 Drawings and Sculptures, presented by Studio Confluence at Jehangir Nicholson Art Gallery, National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai 2007 Berkley Square Gallery, UK 2005 Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi 2002 ‘Sculpture’, Art Heritage, New Delhi 2000 Art Heritage, New Delhi 2000 Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi 1997 'A Real Contemporary Vision’, drawings, Shahajahan Art Gallery, New Delhi 1994 Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai 1983 Sculpture Exhibition, Art Heritage, New Delhi 1982 Exhibition of Drawings, Garhi, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1979 Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi 1976 Madya Pradesh Kala Parishad Gallery, Bhopal 1974 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi 1973 Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi 1971 Konark Art Gallery, New Delhi 1966 Gallery Chemould, New Delhi and Mumbai 1965 Art and Print Gallery, Kolkata 1965 Kunika Chemould Art Centre, New Delhi 1964 Kunika Chemould Art Centre, New Delhi
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 'The Art of Drawing', The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai2010 'Vahana', Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai 2010 'Essential, Eclectic,...Ephemeral', The Harrington Mansions, Kolkata 2007 ‘The Workshop’, India Fine Art, Mumbai 2007 ‘ A Matter of Forms’, Samanvai Art Gallery, Rajasthan 2006 'Tangibles', Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai 2006 Gallery Espace, New Delhi 2005 Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi 2005 ‘Manifestations III’, Nehru Centre, Mumbai, Delhi Art Gallery and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 2004 ‘Manifestations II’, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Delhi Art Gallery and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 2004 ‘Manifestations I’, World Trade Centre, Mumbai, Delhi Art Gallery and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 2000 Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi 1999 'Notable Exceptions' – I'm Gallery, New Delhi 1998 'Living on the Edge', Art Inc. Gallery, New Delhi 1998 Art Inc. Gallery, New Delhi 1998 'Face to Face': Artists from Baroda, Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1994 Group Exhibition of Still Life, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai 1993 Drawings, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai 1992 ‘Heads’, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai 1991 Nine Indian Contemporaries, Centre of Contemporary Art, New Delhi 1989 'Timeless Art', organized by the Times of India, Mumbai 1982 Represented in the Inaugural Show of Roopankar Museum, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal 1980 Visual Art Centre, Ahmedabad 1978 Exhibition of Prints, Garhi, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi 1977 'Pictorial Space', New Delhi 1976 Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad Gallery, Bhopal 1967,68 Five Contemporaries, Kunika Chemould Art Centre, New Delhi 1964 Triveni Gallery, New Delhi 1963 Participated in 'Group 1890' Show, New Delhi 1962 Progressive Painters Group Exhibition, Ahmedabad 1957-58 Baroda Group Show, Mumbai
Participations
2012 'Crossings: Time Unfolded, Part 2', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi 2011 'Ethos V: Indian Art Through the Lens of History (1900 to 1980), Indigo Blue Art, Singapore
2011 ‘Manifestations VI', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi2011 ‘Manifestations V', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi 2011 'Time Unfolded', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi 2011 'The Intuitive: Logic Revisted', from the Osians Collection at The World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland 2010 ‘Manifestations IV', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi 2008-09 'Paz Mandala', Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1997 'Yellow Deity': Contemporary Indian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Ludwig Museum, Budapest 1997 'Rediscovering the Roots' Contemporary Indian Art, Meseo de la Nacion, Lima, Peru 1997 Ninth Triennale - India Seven Artists from the Collection of National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi 1996 'Roopankar' Contemporary Indian Art - A Collection Festival of Indian Art, Moscow 1982 Festival of India Exhibitions London 1979 Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Sculpture, organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and Mumbai 1975 Participated in the Biennale - 13, Middleheim 1975, Antwerpen 1970 Biennale de Paris 1968 Triennale, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1967 Biennale de Paris 1965 Selected for representation in 'Indian Painting Today', London 1960 National Exhibition, Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
Honours and Awards
2003 Honored by Kalidasa Samman by the Madhya Pradesh Government ...
2003 Honored by Kalidasa Samman by the Madhya Pradesh Government 1996 Received the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society(AIFACS)Award, New Delhi 1994-96 Awarded Emeritus Fellowship given to eminent artists in the field of Performing Arts, Literature and Plastic Arts by Government of India 1988 Received the Sahitya Kala Parishad Award, New Delhi 1983-85 Received the Government of Indian Fellowship to Outstanding Artists 1981-82 Received the Lalit Kala Akademi's Research Grant to work at Garhi Studio, New Delhi 1962 Received the Bombay Art Society Award, Mumbai 1962 Received the Lalit Kala National Award for Painting, New Delhi 1960 He was also Awarded Gold Medal by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art 1959 Received the Lalit Kala National Award for Painting, New Delhi 1956-61 Awarded by the Government of India Scholarship for Advanced Studies in Painting, under Prof. N.S. Bendre
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11 August 2023
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