Himmat Shah
BORN EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS PARTICIPATIONS HONORS AND AWARD ABOUT THE ARTIST Himmat Shah was born in 1933 in Lothal Gujarat. After initially training as a drawing teacher, he studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the M.S. University of Baroda, from 1956 to 1960. He was a National Cultural Scholar in 1956 and received a scholarship from the French government to study printmaking at the Atelier 17 in Paris in 1967.
Shah was a member of the 1890 Group, a short-lived artist collective founded by J. Swaminathan. The then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, inaugurated 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 agendas.
Shah's predilection for drawing was natural. Being an economical, transformative, and free form of expression, he was drawn to his negotiations with form and space. If one looks closely at his early drawings, he discovers the skill behind the chaotic black lines. These works are never predictable and are deeply ironic in the way 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. Xaviers School in Ahmedabad. From then on he began to work in 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 obsolescence inherent to a consumerist society. His gilded clay objects have traces of paints and there are illegible hieroglyphs engraved on his series of metal heads. They are elements that mock themselves and speak of age and decadence.
Shah's solo exhibitions include drawings and sculptures presented by Studio Confluence at Jehangir Nicholson Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2007, an exhibition at Saffronart and Berkley Square Gallery, London, in 2007, Sculpture at Art Heritage, New Delhi, in 2002, and others made. at Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2005, Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi, in 2000, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, in 1994, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1982, and Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi in 1973.
Himmat Shah's work has been part of many group exhibitions, including Yellow Deity Contemporary Indian Art at the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, in 1997, Rediscovering the Roots at the Museo de la Nacion, Lima, in 1997, Ninth Triennial - Seven Artists of the collection. at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, also in 1997, the Moscow Indian Art Festival in 1996, and the Paris Biennale in 1967 and 1970.
In 2003, the Government of Madhya Pradesh conferred the Kalidasa Samman on the artist. Shah was also awarded 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 Art Museum held Hammer on the Square, a retrospective showcasing Shah's famous terracotta sculptures, bronzes, and drawings, alongside lesser-known murals, burnt paper collages, and silver paintings.
The artist lives and works in New Delhi. Notification - We do not usually display Himmat Shah's work, only send it to private art collectors and interested art buyers.
July 22, 1933 Lothal, Gujarat
1966-67 Studied with S. W. Hayter and Krishna Reddy, Atelier 17, Paris
1956-61 he Worked with Professor N.S Bendre, Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
1953 Course for Drawing Teachers, Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai
2016 HIMMAT SHAH Hammer in the Square A retrospective (1957-2015), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi
2007 Drawings and sculptures, presented by Studio Confluence at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Gallery, National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai
2007 Berkley Square Gallery, UK
2005 Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
2002 Sculpture, Artistic Heritage, New Delhi
2000 Artistic Heritage, New Delhi
2000 Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi
1997 A Contemporary Royal Vision, Drawings, Shahajahan Art Gallery, New Delhi
1994 Sakshi Gallery, Bombay
1983 Sculpture Exhibition, Artistic Heritage, New Delhi
1982 Drawing Exhibition, Garhi, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1979 Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi
1976 Kala Parishad Gallery of Madya Pradesh, Bhopal
1974 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi
1973 Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi
1971 Konark Art Gallery, New Delhi
1966 Chemould Gallery, New Delhi and Mumbai
1965 Art and Print Gallery, Calcutta
1965 Kunika Chemould Art Center, New Delhi
1964 Kunika Chemould Art Center, New Delhi
2011 The Art of Drawing, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
2010 Vahana, Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai
2010 Essential, eclectic, ephemeral, The Harrington Mansions, Kolkata
2007 The Workshop, Indian Fine Arts, Mumbai
2007 A Question of Forms, Samanvai Art Gallery, Rajasthan
2006 Tangibles, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006 Espace Gallery, 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 Demonstrations I, World Trade Centre, Mumbai, Delhi Art Gallery and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2000 Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi
1999 Notable Exceptions Im Gallery, New Delhi
1998 Living on the Edge, Art Inc. Gallery, New Delhi
1998 Art Inc. Gallery, New Delhi
1998 Face-to-Face Artists of Baroda, Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1994 Group Still Life Exhibition, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
1993 Drawings, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
1992 Heads, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
1991 Nine Indian Contemporaries, Center for Contemporary Art, New Delhi
1989 Timeless Art, organized by Times of India, Mumbai
1982 Depicted at the inaugural exhibition of the Roopankar Museum, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
1980 Visual Arts Centre, Ahmedabad
1978 Exhibition of Prints, Garhi, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
1977 Pictorial space, New Delhi
1976 Kala Parishad Gallery of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal
1967.68 Five Contemporaries, Kunika Chemould Art Centre, New Delhi
1964 Triveni Gallery, New Delhi
1963 Participated in the Group 1890 exhibition, New Delhi
1962 Group Exhibition of Progressive Painters, Ahmedabad
1957-58 Baroda Group Exhibition, Mumbai
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 Delhi
2011 Manifestations V, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 Time Unfolded, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi
2011 Intuitive Logic Revisited, from the Osians Collection at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
2010 Manifestations IV, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2008-09 Peace Mandala, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1997 Contemporary Indian art of the yellow deity, Museum of Contemporary Art, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
1997 Rediscovering the Roots of Contemporary Indian Art, Museum of the Nation, Lima, Peru
1997 Ninth Indian Triennial Seven artists from the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi
1996 Roopankar Festival of Contemporary Indian Art, Indian Art Collection, Moscow
1982 Festival of India Exhibitions London
1979 Silver Jubilee Sculpture Exhibition, organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and Mumbai
1975 Participated in the Biennale-13, Middleheim 1975, Antwerp
1970 Paris Biennale
1968 Triennial, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1967 Paris Biennale
1965 Selected for representation in Indian Painting Today, London
1960 National Exhibition, Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2003 Honored by Kalidasa Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh
1996 Received the award from the Indian Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), New Delhi
1994-96 Emeritus Fellowship awarded by the Government of India to eminent artists in the field of performing arts, literature, and fine arts
1988 Received Sahitya Kala Parishad Award, New Delhi
1983-85 Received a Government of India Scholarship for Outstanding Artists
1981-82 Received Lalit Kala Akademis Research Fellowship to work at Garhi Studio, New Delhi
1962 Received the Bombay Art Society Award, Mumbai
1962 Received the Lalit Kala National Painting Award, New Delhi
1960 He also received the Gold Medal from the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art
1959 Received the Lalit Kala National Painting Award, New Delhi
1956-61 Scholarship awarded by the Government of India for advanced studies in painting, under the guidance of Prof. N.S. Bendre
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