Paramjit Singh Indian, b. 1935

Born in 1935 in Amritsar, Punjab, Paramjit Singh attended the Delhi School of Art at Delhi Polytechnic. He was a founder member of the ‘Unknown’, a group of artists and sculptors in Delhi in 1960. In 1970 he went on to receive the National Award from the Lalit Kala Academy, shortly after which he worked in print-making in Oslo, Norway, for a few years. He has served as a researcher, professor and honored professor emeritus at Jamia Milia University, New Delhi.

Singh’s brush charts a course on the canvas that gives the viewer panoramic visions of mystic landscapes. The bush, coated with thick pigment, does not rest before it has filled the entire surface; before the paint has ensured that all the natural forms in the frame have been given a colourful, tactile presence. The dappled areas of the sky and water too are rendered with a tactile feel. The lines etching out the grass, the leaves, the peduncle, seem to be possessed by a mysterious, lyrical musicality. The artist’s paintings create a continuum or series, evading the risk of self-duplication. Working both in the realist and the representational style, Singh’s canvases are gentle explorations of the possibilities that lie beyond the urban world that surrounds us; beyond the noises and sounds and streets packed with vehicles. Singh’s art is significant in its creation of a space for itself, and of an aesthetic haven for its viewers.

Singh had his first solo show at the Triveni Gallery, New Delhi, in 1967, and has had numerous solo exhibitions since. Singh’s most recent shows include Talwar Gallery, New York, in 2014; the City Art Center, Hong Kong, in 2012; Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2010; the Lalit Kala Academy, Chandigarh, in 2009; 'Shall Return Again...' at the Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata, in 2009; ‘Green Thought’ at Bodhi Art, Singapore, in 2008; and shows at Grosvenor Vadehra, London, and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2007, among others. Singh’s work has also been a part of many group shows, some of which include‘Indian Art’ at Grosvenor–Vadehra, London, in 2016 and 2007; 'Progressive to Altermodern' at Grosvenor Gallery, London, in 2009; 'Modern and Contemporary Indian Art' at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2008; and ‘Inventing/ Inverting Traditions: Indian Art II/III’ at Grosvenor Vadehra, London, in 2006-07.

The artist lives and works in New Delhi