Gulam Mohammed Sheikh (b. 1937) is one of the central figures of Indian contemporary art, known as a painter, poet, writer, art historian, and teacher. He was born in Saurashtra, Gujarat, and studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Baroda, and later at the Royal College of Art in London, forming a practice at the intersection of academic rigor, literary imagination, and cultural memory.
Sheikh first emerged in the 1960s as a co-founder of Group 1890, a short-lived but influential collective that challenged the dominant abstract trends of the period and helped reassert the importance of figuration and narrative in Indian art. His paintings draw from Persian, Mughal, Pahari, and European sources, as well as from Kabir, mythology, urban life, and personal memory, creating richly layered scenes populated by historical figures, imagined spaces, and shifting viewpoints.
Over time, his work became increasingly expansive, moving from landscapes and narrative canvases to collage-like compositions, accordion books, maps, digital works, and installations such as Kaavad: Home. This visual complexity reflects his interest in storytelling, place, migration, and the coexistence of the local and the cosmopolitan.
As a writer and critic, Sheikh has also played a major role in shaping art discourse in India, while his teaching has influenced generations of artists at Baroda and beyond. In 1974, he published Athwa, his collection of Gujarati surrealistic poems. His work has been shown widely in India and internationally, and he has received major honours including the Padma Shri, the Kalidas Samman, and the Ravi Shankar Rawal Award.
Gulam Mohammed Sheikh’s art remains distinctive for its humane imagination, luminous colour, and commitment to narrative as a way of understanding history, politics, and lived experience.