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Rameshwar Singh was born in Rajasthan, and received his M.A. in drawing and painting from Udaipur University in 1982. About his work, fellow painter F. N. Souza has commented "His paintings are very compact; there's a lot in them: figures, forms, and mythological content. Very colourful too. The forms are carefully constructed; there's craftsmanship in his work, and skill. Sort of magic mantras and omens appear mysteriously in Rameshwar's...
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Rameshwar Singh was born in Rajasthan, and received his M.A. in drawing and painting from Udaipur University in 1982. About his work, fellow painter F. N. Souza has commented "His paintings are very compact; there's a lot in them: figures, forms, and mythological content. Very colourful too. The forms are carefully constructed; there's craftsmanship in his work, and skill. Sort of magic mantras and omens appear mysteriously in Rameshwar's paintings. One of the best exhibitions I have seen in Delhi this winter at Dhoomimal Gallery." Critic Umesh Verma has written, "Singh is a virile painter from Rajasthan. Calligraphed textures and through inner alchemic processing he creates highly decorative folkishly sweet objects and paintings. His process is more or less scientific and has obvious overtones of Rajasthan. Sweetness and mirage are the reason for the essence of his visuals. He invokes poetic-Lingo."
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Born
February 5, 1946
Rajasthan
Education
1982 Master of Arts (Drawing and Painting), Udaipur University
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2008 ‘Time, the Refreshing River’,...
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2008 ‘Time, the Refreshing River’, Rabindra Bhawan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2007 Vinnyasa Premier Art Gallery, Chennai
2006 ‘Revival – Retrospection of 50 Years of Discovery’, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006 ‘Bhumika Takshak’, Jawahar Kala Kandra, Jaipur
2005 ‘Neo Romanticism of Forgotten Past’, Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2005 Crimson-The Art Resource, Bangalore
2004 Ta BLU Café Gallery Bar, Clarks Amer, Jaipur
2003 Daffodils Art Gallery, The Grand Hyatt, New Delhi
2003, 1999 Son-et-Lumiere, Mumbai
2002 Department of Fine Arts, Chandigarh
2001 Gallery Jan Steen, Amsterdam, Holland
2001 ABC Gallery, Varanasi
2000 Jamaat, Mumbai
1999 Westminster Art Gallery, Bangalore
1997 Nehru Centre, Mumbai
1996 Durga`s Art Gallery, Mumbai
1996 Ravi Shankar Raval Bhawan, Ahmedabad
1996 Srishti Art Gallery, Lucknow
1995,98,2002,2004 Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi
1995,2002,2004 Welcome Gallery, Rajputana Palace Sheraton, Jaipur
1993,98,2001,2006 Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur
1989,91,94 Gallery Aurobido, New Delhi
1987,91,94,2002 Taj Art Gallery, Mumbai
1987 Chetana Art Gallery, Mumbai
1986,90 Bajaj Art Gallery, Mumbai
1987,89,94,2003 Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata
1986 Dhoomimal Art Centre, New Delhi
1985,94,98,2000,2006 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1984,91,2000,2003,2005 Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
1984 Art Gallery, Faculty and Fine Art, Baroda
1984 Art Gallery, School of Arts, Jaipur
1983 Contemporary Art Gallery, Ahmedabad
1983 Information Centre, Udaipur
1982 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), New Delhi
Participations
2004 Golden Jubilee Celebration of Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2004 11th Asian Art Biennial, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2000 India Heritage Centre, Washington
1993,1995,1996,1997,1998, 2003, 2004 ‘Kala Mela’, organized by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy, Jaipur
1993 International Art Exhibition organized by WLRA World Congress and UNESCO, Jaipur.
1983 International Art Show, ’Tokyo’, Japan.
1992 ‘City Art Utsav’, celebrated by City Bank, India, 90 Years, Mumbai.
1986 ‘Apana Utsav’, New Delhi.
1987, 1991 Bharat Bhawan International Biennial of Print, Bhopal.
1982 to 1997 Rajasthan State Lalit Kala Academy Exhibition, Jaipur.
1983 to 1995 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society ( AIFACS), New Delhi.
1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 National Lalit Kala Akademi Exhibition, New Delhi
Honours and Awards
2006 Honored by His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu, Ooty
2003...
2006 Honored by His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu, Ooty
2003 Honored by Bhartiya Rajput Mahasabha, Deogarh dist. Rajsamand at Shaktibhawan, Deogarh
2004 Ankan Kala Parishad, Bhilwara
2000 Nagridas Kala Sansthan, Kishangarh, Ajmer
2000 All Indian Art Biennial of Rajasthan, Jaipur
1997 All India Art Biennial of Rajasthan, Jaipur
1986 Research Scholarship, National Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1992 1st Indian Drawing Biennial, The Solids, Chandigarh
1992 Banaras Artists Association, Banaras
1990 South Central Zone Culture Centre, Nagpur
1988 Bharatha Kala Parishad, Hyderabad
1985, 1990 Creators, Ambala Cantt.
1985 Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore
1985 Oriental Art Society, Kolkata
1984,1990 Mahakaushal Kala Parishad, Raipur
1984 Andhra Pradesh Council of Artists, Hyderabad
1977,1980 Tulika Kalakar Parishad, Udaipur
1984 Hyderabad Art Society, Hyderabad
1983, 1987, 1990 The Indian Academy of Fine Art, Amritsar
1984 U.P. State Lalit Kala Academy, Lucknow
1985, 1987 Bombay Art Society, Mumbai
1995 Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy, Jaipur
1984 National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
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His development as an artist:
Formal education has played little role in my development as an artist. I am actually a science graduate and secured a degree in drawing and painting from Udaipur University only in 1982 well into my thirties. But this in no way hampered my growth as an artist because I imbibed art from humble craftsmen in villages during my childhood. It was like...
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His development as an artist:
Formal education has played little role in my development as an artist. I am actually a science graduate and secured a degree in drawing and painting from Udaipur University only in 1982 well into my thirties. But this in no way hampered my growth as an artist because I imbibed art from humble craftsmen in villages during my childhood. It was like first-hand and practical way of acquiring artistic skills and sensibilities.
So vibrant and lively is the art scene in Rajasthan that one takes to art intuitively. I belong to a small village where art has always been an inseparable element of social life. The simple rural folks dance, sing, paint and draw on every festive occasion. For them, it's not just a cultural expression; it's a way of living.
I had gone through a long period of intense struggle before I could establish myself as an artist of repute. I came to Mumbai in 1972, looking for an opening. While I waged a battle for survival, I kept on experimenting rightly or wrongly in drawing and painting. There were moments of frustration, but they proved to be just an aberration in my fruitful artistic voyage that still continues.
I was noticed and appreciated after my first major show in New Delhi in 1982. Critics applauded the "warm reddish compositions with all the addenda of a teeming life" in my paintings.
Since then I have not looked back. I have done about 1,500 paintings, and have many more left to do.
His blending of the traditional and the contemporary:
I have a fascination for antiquity. The subject matter may be old-fashioned, but the treatment is novel. My work is very much keeping in tune with times. It is just that I
prefer to go back to our roots in search of our rich artistic traditions and put them in context of the contemporary.
Though a nostalgic mood pervades, my work essentially is contemporary. It's like an artistic excavation in an effort to link the past to the present. Through my paintings, I pay tribute to our cultural tradition that, I believe, can never be outdated.
Ambling languidly in the mystical, mythical times of the yore,..... I transcend to the modern. A thin line separates the eras and brings them perennially close. Though not cut off from the present, I tend to live in the past. It's a side of my personality that adds character to my work. Blending the past with the present and striking a right balance in the process is what has helped me establish my identity.
His source of inspiration:
I draw inspiration from our ancient scriptures, architecture and artifacts Rajasthan, India's 'desert' state, is rich with art traditions. The people of this desert state have compensated for vast blank stretches of land with bright colours in every aspect of life. They dance, sing, draw and dress colourfully on festive occasions. These are like live demonstrations of the States art traditions.
I constantly move in the interiors to study the people, their culture and their lifestyle. I come across different art forms during my journey. I interact with the people to understand how they associate themselves with art they create.
Old calligraphy, scripts and architecture also seize my mind. These inadvertently appear in my work. I do occasionally read mythological and folk tales and have based several of my paintings on them.
I go around the ubiquitous art marts on the streets of every city I visit, searching for antique pieces. I may not buy them always, but just observing them further develop my artistic vision. I try to recreate the images.
Artifacts like vessels, music instruments, games, toys and prints that speak so much of our rich tradition have a pulsating effect on me.
His paintings :
My paintings are a tribute to the art tradition and an effort to keep them in focus. I paint for deriving aesthetic pleasure. My work is neither a statement on anything nor it means to fight any notions or traditions.
There are bodies halved into the shapes of human and animal. Strange objects fly around. An antique Roman clock invariably features somewhere. Everything seems like having been caught in a time warp.
A true communication or communion is on between one colour and another, between object and subject and things and thoughts. Life is certainly seen being lived to the full, since there is an organic connection between the two lots. In the paintings with a mythological theme, I like to depict different forms of Lord Ganesh, Goddess Durga and the Sun God. Otherwise, I like to place strange body shapes amidst
Art critic Keshav Malik, who has reviewed Singh's work from early days, mentions, "Singh's apparitions from the cultural past cause nostalgia in viewers. This same dreamscape brims with the personae of charming figments, of birds, fish, beast and humans, of objects from both past and present. Here there are motifs from the foregoing Rajasthani painting as well as images of mundane objects of the day. All these have blended thoroughly."
Malik says, "No feel of over-crowding or of congestion. The ecology of Rameshwar's compositions, in other words, is just right; it suggests the interdependence of each on all, and of live and let live. This at least was the earlier Indian cultural methodology."
His style of work:
I like to provide attention to every minute detail. My canvasses are textured and layered over and over. I hate leaving any empty space on the canvass and embellish and decorate every object.
I profusely use different scriptures like Arabic, Persian, Urdu and even English. The couplets used don't make any statement. They on their own don't represent anything, but I don't use the symbols for the heck of it. To decipher them, they need to be viewed in totality, keeping in mind the objects painted. Otherwise, they are there for purely decorative purpose
A line with a shadow, cutting across the canvass, gives a sense of perspective to the painting. The concept is similar to one employed in old scrolled miniatures. Lines make a viewer stop and ponder; line break the monotony and depth.
Medium is not a barrier to me. I don't always go by set patterns. Some of my paintings extend to or beyond the frame.
I started with abstract before slowly switching to figurative. May be, I have come a full circle as I again feel like doing abstract.
His concern about declining art traditions:
Rajasthan is one of the few states in India to have preserved the art of painting in the idioms of the local soil. However, as many art experts correctly perceive, this great tradition is threatened by technological and socio-political changes.
Puppetry, folk dances, scroll painting, tattoo, etc belong to the rich art tradition. If no attention is provided to their revival, these will simply vanish. The revival cannot take place on its own. The Government or art loving people together need to undertake the task.
Recently, the Rajasthan Government sponsored a conclave of non-resident Indians from the State. I was saddened by the fact that the organizers did nothing more than providing only a lip service was provided to the cause of preserving the State's art traditions. This
certainly won't encourage the artists. The Government as well as the people must be more sensitive to them.
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PAST StoryLTD AUCTIONS
Showing
1
of
1
works
Lot 23
Details
Absolute Tuesdays
23 March 2021
Untitled
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 in
Winning bid
$568
Rs 40,920
(Inclusive of buyer's premium)
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