S G Thakur Singh

Sardar Ganda Thakar Singh (1899–1976), popularly known as S. G. Thakur Singh, artist who painted in oils, pastels and water colour. He worked in the Indian film industries located in Bombay and Calcutta. He received some art training from Mohammed Alam at V. D. J. Technical Institute in Lahore.

Later career After the Bath, by S. G. Thakur Singh, 1924. Kept in the collection of the former Patiala royal state. From Mumbai he moved to Kolkata where he lived and worked for several theatrical companies, working initially at Madan Theatre as a scene painter. According to Partha Mitter, author of The triumph of modernism: India's artists and the avant-garde, 1922–1947 and the art critic Krishna Chaitanya, Thakur Singh followed the style of the Bengali artist Hemendranath Mazumdar in painting such themes.

With friends, Thakur Singh organised the Punjab Fine Art Society in Kolkata, and the Society's first Exhibition was held in 1926. The Society promoted Thakur Singh's own works, publishing his paintings in The Art of S. G. Thakur Singh and Glimpses of India, the latter book had introductions by Rabindranath and Abanindranath Tagore. Thakur Singh worked specially for the rulers of Indian princely states on commissions, the rulers of Kotah, Udaipur, Bhopal, Kashmir and others being his patrons.

Thakur Singh moved back to Amritsar in 1931, where he founded the Thakur Singh School of Art. Several of its past students are now achieving recognition as artists or as art-teachers and it has been lately recognised by the Industrial Training Department of the Punjab Government to award a diploma of Art & Craft, teacher's course.

He painted in oils, pastels and water colour. He painted nearly ten thousand paintings, and has won many awards. His paintings hang in museums, public buildings and in private collections around the world.

India honoured him in other ways too. He was nominated to the First Punjab Legislative Council in 1952. He was on the Executive Board of the National Academy of Art (Lalit Kala Akademy) and was Chairman of the Decoration Sub Committee at the 61st Session of the Indian National Congress held at Amritsar in 1956. He was invited to the former USSR and Hungary for solo shows in Moscow, Leningrad and Budapest.

He was commissioned to do many portraits, but it is his landscapes which have won for him popular acclaim.

He received award of Padma Shri in 1973.

Auction Results

+ S G Thakur Singh's works in auction world is rare. Most of it is found in museums and hotels which were palaces at one time. Auction House Result Link Bonhams https://www.bonhams.com/auction/26636/lot/194/s-g-thakur-singh-india-189099-1976-indian-street-scene/ Sothebys https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/modern-contemporary-south-asian-art/untitled-woman-in-courtyard Bid and Hammer https://auctions.bidandhammer.com/sg-thakur-singh?productId=2717&catId=58#.YwOwsXbMKUk Bonhams https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25434/lot/216/ Bonhams https://www.bonhams.com/auction/25545/lot/86/s-g-thakur-singh-india-189099-1976-fishermen-at-dawn-on-madras-beach/ Bonhams https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27372/lot/104/rajasthan-bedla-prince-of-bedla-by-sg-thakar-singh-1935/ Osians http://assets.osianama.com/ecatalogue/2008-01-19-Indian-Modern-Contemporary-Art/35/