Gulam Mohammed Sheikh
Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padmashri 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. Style. "Sheikh's art is by its nature," writes Chaitanya Sambrani, "one that takes on task of narrating, and therefore, recreating the world. There is a close tie-in between this narrative and an act of mapping the world, which gives to the speaking subject the possibility of addressing the world as his/her own". Recently Sheikh had been working on the Mappa Mundi series where he defines new horizons and ponders over to locate himself in. Sheikh construes these personal universes enthused from the miniature shrines where he urges the audience to exercise the freedom to  build up their Mappa Mundi. Personal life. Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh lives with his artist-wife Nilima in Vadodara, India. Publications. 2017, 'Nirkhe te Nazar', a collection of writings on visual arts in Gujarati, Samvad Prakashan, Vadodara & Khsitij Sansodhan Prakashan Kendra, Mumbai.