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Lot 107

 

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Shankar B Palsikar was born in 1917, in Bhandara, a small town belonging to the Sakoli district of Maharashtra. Today Palsikar is fondly remembered as the father of Mumbai's contemporary art culture and mentor to a great number of city artists who found fame and fortune in the twentieth century.

Palsikar was a member of the Bombay Group of Artists, which was formed in 1956 to promote modern art in the city, after the dissolution of the... Shankar B Palsikar was born in 1917, in Bhandara, a small town belonging to the Sakoli district of Maharashtra. Today Palsikar is fondly remembered as the father of Mumbai's contemporary art culture and mentor to a great number of city artists who found fame and fortune in the twentieth century.

Palsikar was a member of the Bombay Group of Artists, which was formed in 1956 to promote modern art in the city, after the dissolution of the Progressive Artists' Group. He was joined in this group by famous painters and sculptors like Shiavax Chavda, KH Ara, HA Gade, DG Kulkarni, B Satwelkar, BC Sanyal, KK Hebbar and Mohan Samant.

Growing up and following his passion for painting in Mumbai, Palsikar was tutored and had his talent honed by none other than the master painter, NS Bendre. As he worked during the day to make a living and pay his way through his education in the fine arts, Palsikar used to attend evening classes conducted by Bendre at his Dadar studio. From 1942 to 1947, he also managed to make enough money to eventually make his way through a formal course in painting, and obtained a Diploma in the field from the Sir JJ School of Art. Palsikar's great talent was immediately recognized in this institution, and on his graduation he was appointed a fellow and teacher there, where, amongst other things he taught courses on the art of Bashouli miniatures. After 21 years of teaching, Palsikar was honoured with the title of dean of the JJ School in 1968, and occupied that position until he retired to only paint in 1975.

This was not the only achievement in Palsikar's career. In 1950, Palsikar was received the great honour of being the first recipient of the Cultural Scholarship in Fine Arts from the Government of India, which has since become the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s fellowship for the arts.

Sometimes called a 'tantric artist', like Biren De or GR Santosh, Palsikar has illustrated several books including 'Dancers with Snake' in 1952 and 'Colour and Sound' in 1972. Famous Mumbai artists and students of the JJ School like Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, MF Husain, SG Vasudev, Jatin Das and Prabhakar Kolte all acknowledge a great debt to this painter and teacher, who taught them not only about art, but about life and its values as well.

SB Palsikar expired in Mumbai in 1984, and to honour his memory, a grand retrospective of his work was hosted at the Jehangir Art Gallery that same year.

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