Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh

Born: 16 February 1937

He is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India.
He was awarded Padmashri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution to the field of art.
He 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.
He 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 art is by its nature,” writes Chaitanya Sambrani, “one that takes on the 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 he had been working on the Mappa Mundi series where he defines new horizons and ponders over to locate himself in.
He construes these personal universes enthused from the miniature shrines where he urges the audience to exercise the freedom to build up their Mappa Mundi.