Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh

Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution in field of art.

Early life Sheikh was born on 16 February 1937 in Surendranagar (now in Saurashtra region of Gujarat, India). He matriculated in 1955. He completed B.A. in Fine Art in 1959 and M.A. in 1961 from Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He received ARCA from Royal College of Art, London in 1966.

Career In 1960, he joined as a professor of Fine Arts in the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda. His teaching positions have included teaching art history in the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1960–63 and 1967–81,) and as Professor of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1982–1993). He has been a Visiting Artist at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1987 and 2002, and a Writer/Artist in Residence at Civitella Ranieri Center, Umbertide, Italy (1998), at the University of Pennsylvania (2002), and at Montalvo, California (2005).

Sheikh has been a major figure in the world of Indian art for more than four decades. He has participated in major exhibitions all over the world and his works are displayed in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, USA. Ghulam has been active not merely as an artist but also as a teacher and writer.

His collection of Gujarati surrealistic poems, Athwa (1974) won him considerable critical acclaim. He has also written a prose series, Gher Jatan and edited special issues of Kshitij as well as Vishwamanav and Sayujya magazines. American Chitrakala (1964) is his translated work. Sheikh's practice transcends linear histories, drawing from personal memory, cultural heritage, and global influences. Sheikh's style is fundamentally narrative. He uses both traditional and contemporary formats—such as Kaavads, accordion books, and digital collages—to weave multi-layered stories. His storytelling is influenced by oral traditions, literature, poetry (e.g., Kabir), and historical memory, often blending the personal with the political. His work moves across gouaches, oil paintings, prints, and digital art, showing a comfort with both tactile and technological tools. His paintings often fuse Persian, Mughal, Indian miniature, and modernist aesthetics, pointing to his syncretic vision of culture. Works like Speechless City and City for Sale show a critical engagement with urban transformation, political unrest, and violence. These are often rendered in densely composed cityscapes, loaded with allegorical figures, architectural fragments, and satirical commentary. In digital works like Talisman: Taweez and Mappamundi, Sheikh uses maps as metaphors, questioning colonial borders, memory, and geopolitical power. His visual style here blends digital layering with historical referencing, creating palimpsests of place and time. Ghulam Sheikh's painting style is narrative-driven, hybrid in media, politically conscious, and anchored in cultural syncretism and visual storytelling. He bridges miniature painting, modernist experimentation, and digital expression, making him a uniquely expansive voice in contemporary Indian art.

Personal life Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh lives with his artist-wife Nilima in Vadodara, India.

Awards National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1962. Padmashri by Government of India, 1983 Kalidas Samman, Madhya Pradesh Government, 2002. Padma Bhushan by Government of India, 2014 Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati, 2022

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay, 1960 National Exhibition, New Delhi, 1962 The VII Tokyo Biennale, Tokyo, Japan, 1963 Cinquieme Biennale de Paris, Paris, 1967 25 Years of Indian Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1972 Contemporary painting of India, Belgrade, Warsaw, Sofia, Brussels, 1974 III Triennale (India), Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1975 Place for People (6 artists), Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay and Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1981 Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, Festival of India, London, 1982 Returning Home, Solo Exhibition (a retrospective selection of work from 1968 to 1985) at Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National d'Art Modeme, Paris, 1985 Timeless Art, exhibition and auction, Times of India sesquicentennial at Victoria Terminus, Bombay, 1989 Realism as an Attitude, IV Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan, 1995 Two-person show (with Bhupen Khakhar), Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA, 2002

Publications 2017, 'Nirkhe te Nazar', a collection of writings on visual arts in Gujarati, Samvad Prakashan, Vadodara & Khsitij Sansodhan Prakashan Kendra, Mumbai. Athwa (poems in Gujarati), Butala, Vadodara 1974. Laxma Goud, monograph on the artist, Hyderabad, A. P. Lalit Kala Akademi, Hyderabad 1981. Contemporary Art of Baroda (ed.), Tulika, New Delhi 1996. Essays, articles and papers in 'Marg', 'Journal of Arts & Ideas', 'Lalit Kala Contemporary' as well as Hindi and Gujarati journals. Exhibition catalogues of K G Subramanyan, Jeram Patel, Laxma Goud, DLN Reddy, D Devraj, etc.