Shri Paramjit Singh (Painter)
was conferred with
Punjab Gaurav Sanmaan (Instituted by Punjab Kala Parishad)
by
Shri V P Singh Badnore, Honorable Governor of Punjab
and Shri Navjot Singh Sidhu, Honorable Minister for Tourism, Culture and Local Bodies, Punjab
at the Dr. M S Randhawa Auditorium, Punjab Kala Bhawan
Sector 16 B, Chandigarh
on 19th April 2017
Paramjit Singh – Painter
Master of interpreting landscape
About Paramjit Singh
Over his six decades as a painter paramjit has watched and considered the changes in art around him, but he has never let fashion dictate his priamry concerns. his landscapes gain an utopian quality in our mind, they are non objective, pure and simple. Paramjit’s art is a great statement
to preserve the environment which mankind is destroying for their material greed. His landscapes reveal the hidden nuances of the nature which escape the attention of naked eye.
Some contemporary Indian painters have found landscape painting as a genre suitable for expressing the esoteric and the outr6. For them the phenomenal world hides something more than what is immediately perceived. Paramjit Singh’s hills and woodlands carry the luminous memory of a transcendental presence.
Paramjit landscapes, with their loaded silence evocative of the other worldly, became over the years, a distinct mystical utterance in pictorial terms. The esoteric in his landscapes was perhaps young Paramjit’s response to the mystery in tensions between the deep pictorial space and the sharp shadows of inanimate objects in the picture metafisica, a short-lived school in modem Italian art, and to the later Surrealist paintings. All these were transformed over MORE THAN FAVE decades into a personal statement in Paramjit’s paintings.
From around the late 80s, Paramjit’s landscapes and his techniques changed radically. The Italian picture metafisica with their sharp shadows and melting tones receded into oblivion, and there emerged lush Indian landscapes with a mystical vision of a transcendental presence.
Paramjit Singh won the National Award in 1970. he has held about 40 solo shows and many group exhibitions in India as well as abroad.
Born in 1935 in Amritsar, in the living quarters of Khalsa College, Paramjit Singh had his art education in the School of Arts, Delhi Polytechnic (1953-58). He was the founder member of ‘The Unknown’, a group of young painters and sculptors based in Delhi.
He served as a professor in Jamia Milia Islamia, new Delhi and was instrumental in developing the department of fine art into fledged faculty of fine art.
After his retirement in 1992 he was made professor emeritus.
Paramjit Singh lives and works in New Delhi with his wife Arpita Singh, who herself is renowned artist.
Bio Data
1935 – Born in Amritsar
1935-58 – Studied in Delhi School of Arts, Delhi Polytechnic, Delhi
1960-63 – Founder member, ‘The Unknown’ a group of young painters and sculptors in Delhi
1970 – National Award, Lalit Kala Academy
1973 – Worked (print making) in Atelier nard, Oslo, Norway
1963-92 – Worked as Lecturer, Reader and Professor, Dept. of Fine Arts, Faculty of Education, JamiaMilliaIslamia, New Delhi
2005 – Honored professor Emeritus honored by JamiaMilliaIslamia
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 – Talwar Gallery, New York
2012 – City Art Center, Hong Kong
2010 – Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi
2009 – Lalit Kala Academy, Chandigarh
2009 – CIMA Gallery, Kolkata
2008 – Bodhi Art, Singapore
2007 – Grosvenor-Vadehra, London
2007 – Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi
2005 – Sakshi Gallery, Bombay
2004 – Talwar Gallery, New York
2001 – Air Gallery, London. Organized by Gallery Maya
1999 – CIMA Gallery, Kolkata
1997 – Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore
1996 – City Art Center, Hong Kong by Gallery Maya
1995, 98,
2001 – Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi
1994 – The Gallerie, Chennai, CIMA Gallery, Kolkata
1990 – C.C.A., New Delhi
1989 – Gallery Kilian, Celle, Germany
1987 – Cultural Center, Bomlitz, Germany
1983, 85 – Gallery Caprano, Braunchewig Germany
1981 – Mainz, Germany Gallery Alana, Oslo, Norway
1975, 79,
84, 87 – Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi
1974, 78, 81,
85, 90, 96 – Gallery Chemould, Mumbai
1973 – KustnerForbundentm, Oslo Norway
– Gallery Babylon , Brussels
– Art Gallery Achenbach Lohri, Dusseldorf, Germany
1972 – KunikaChemould Gallery, New Delhi
1969, 70 – Gallery Chanakya, New Delhi
1967 – Triveni Gallery, New Delhi
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 – Indian Art, Grosvenor-Vadehra, London
2007 – Indian Art 11/111 Grosvenor-Vadehra, London
2002 – Two Artists – ‘landscapes inner and outer’ Talwar Gallery, New York
1999 – The Air Gallery, Maya, London
1994 – ‘Trends and Images’ by CIMA Gallery, Kolkata
– Drawing 94, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
– Art Biennial, Cairo Egypt
– Festival of Art, Israel
– ‘Art for Children’s Sake’, Habiart Gallery, New Delhi
1993 – Exhibition organized by ZPM and Gallery Expace at Sharjah
– ‘Indian Encounter’ The Galleries, London, New York, Dubai
– ‘Master of Indian’ by Art Trust Mumbai
– Two Artists, MahinderTak, Washington D.C.
1992 – HussainkiSarai by Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi
– Birla Academia Silver Jubilee Show, Kolkata
1991 – Nine Indian Contemporaries, CCA, New Delhi
1990 – Habiart Gallery – Habitat Center, New Delhi
1989 – Artists Alert- Exhibition for SafdarHashmi Memorial Trust, New Delhi
– Nature and Environment, L.K.A. New Delhi
1988 – Gallery Chemould’s25 year anniversary show, Jehangir Gallery Mumbai
– International Festival of Art, Baghdad, Iraq
1987 – Festival of India Russia
1986 – Biennial Roopankar, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
– Art Biannale, Ankara Turkey
1984 – Inaugural Exhibition Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
1984 – 15th International Biennale, Tokyo, Japan
1981 – Indian art Today, Dramstadt, Germany
1980 – Silver Jubilee Exhibition in Miniature Format, L.K.A. New Delhi
1977 – Pictorial Space, New Delhi
1973 – Print Exhibition by Atelier Nord and Gallery 71, Tromso Norway
1972 – Two Artists, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai
1971, 74,
77, 82 – International Triennial, New Delhi
1970 – Art Today, KunikaChemould, New Delhi
1960, 71,
72 – Art Today, KunikaChemould, New Delhi
1967 – Trends in Romanticism, Jehangir Art Gallery Mumbai
1963 – ‘In Memory of Sailoz Mukherjee’, KunikaChemould, New Delhi
1960, 61,
62 – Exhibitions organized by ‘The Unknown’, New Delhi
1959 – Nine Painters
1958 – Seven Painters, New Delhi
1957 – First Young Asian Artists Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
Participated in many National Exhibitions and numerous art camps in Indian and abroad.
Was the commissioner of the Indian section in the festival of art, Lahore, Pakistan in 1988. In 1990-93 painted 450 sq. ft. area for an environmental room in Mumbai
His works are in many private and public collections in Indian and abroad.
Produced a film ‘THE SEVENTH WALK’ a film based on the art of Paramjit Singh, directed by Amit Dutta.
The Film was premiered in Museum of Modern Art, New York
The film has been screened in many international Film Festivals