Foundation To Keep The Legacy Of The Artist Alive & Promote
Art
Mumbai: To commemorate legendary artist J P Singhal’s first death
anniversary and to celebrate his life’s work, a Foundation has been instituted by
his wife, Maya and sons, Dinesh, Rajeev and Sanjeev. The Foundation has been
launched by his family with the dual objective of keeping his legacy alive as
well as promoting Art.
“My father made his mark as a Calendar
artist. This genre of art was very different from the
contemporary style
adopted by painters of that era. With images that were realistic, distinct and
clear, an overall look that was well-finished with soft, smooth and gentle
controlled brush strokes, were his signature style paintings. Be it mythological
themes, Indian beauties, filmstars or rural women, he evolved a style that was
acclaimed by both the popular and critical audiences. But with printed
calendars going obsolete, this form of art has become rare. J P Singhal
Foundation will try to keep this legacy alive,” says Dinesh Singhal, Director,
J P Singhal Foundation.
Born on 24th October
1934 at Meerut, he became a legendary name in the domain of Calendar Art in
India and ruled the world of this art for more than thirty-five years. During
this period J P Singhal painted
over 2700 works, mostly in gauche, that were reproduced over 800 million times,
making him the highest selling painter in India in any form. At a
time, when fine art was the norm for calendars, Singhal singularly broke
creative barriers and gave the genre much needed respectability and admiration
among the critics. He drew inspiration initially from Masters like Chugtai,
Raja Ravi Verma and Old Masters of Europe.
“After making his mark in Indian art, Singhal expanded
on fine art with realistic mythologicals and bathing beauties and embraced the
subject of rural folk of India which soon began to create a special interest
within him. He realized that soon due to urban influences, the culture and
dressing of the rural folk was bound to get corrupted and future generations
would not even know of the past existence of this rich, age old culture. With
camera in hand he travelled to the interiors of rural India to meet tribes where
he observed their lifestyle, captured their images and later recreated them
into paintings in a style unique to him; and thereby archived Real India on his
canvas. Considering that he is the sole artist to have captured realistic
images of the dying rural culture of India and which unfortunately has almost
disappeared due to urban influence, the collection can be termed as a ‘National
Treasure’. One can see the simplicity and the purity in his Art. The beauty of
the Ajanta Caves, the Frescoes and the weather beaten textures on the walls of
the Caves and the work done by artists of that genre later influenced him. Out
of his passion for Ajanta he created beautiful paintings of Buddha,” says
Pradeep Chandra, photographer and friend of J P Singhal for many years.
Singhal also had a long and successful stint in
Bollywood, where, through his camera and styling, he conceived the creative
feel of several blockbuster movies like Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Shaan, Border,
Dil, Gadar-Ek Prem Katha, Hero, Henna, Betaab and over 150 other films. While
working with his friend MF Husain on Gajgamini and
Meenaxi, he
was drawn towards contemporary art. His curiosity about this new style made him
reinvent himself as a contemporary artist. He nurtured his feeling by creating a
series of paintings in modern art. In his own words, to satisfy and pamper the
child (Shishu) inside him, he made an attempt to create this art and
enjoyed at the fullest while doing so.
He has received several National Awards for his
Calendars and also for a Coffee Table Book on photographs of Bollywood Beauties.
“J P Singhal passed
away last year on May 7, 2014 and with him a form of art that was strongly tied
to his personality. Two years before his death he had held his first and last
exhibition of his paintings at Jehangir. While death stole him from us, he was
planning an exhibition of his iconic Bollywood photographs. He was amused by the fact that patrons felt his paintings looked like
photographs and his photographs looked like paintings. Even though 800
million reproductions adorned the walls of Indian homes, most of the Originals
were never made available to the public for viewing. The J P Singhal Foundation will
seek to amend this by holding a series of exhibitions across the globe,”
concludes Dinesh Singhal.
About J P Singhal: Born on 24th October 1934 in Meerut (U.P.), J P
Singhal began painting at the age of ten. At around the age of twenty, his work
got noticed in Dharmayug (a popular TOI publication of the time) leading to his
first Calendar getting published, which also brought him to the city of Mumbai.
Thereafter, he became a household name and no one could better him in fine art realistic
paintings. His work included more than 2700 paintings and over 80 crore
reproductions of the same on subjects varying from mythology to beauties, to
day-to-day life scenes, children, street musicians, tribals, exotic botanical
specimens, wildlife, famous temple sculptures, Ajanta and many others. He also played
a pivotal role in the world of Hindi cinema as a prolific Portfolio Specialist,
Concept Shoots pioneer and publicity designer and went on to design creatives
for over 150 films. He also has published two Coffee Table books dedicated to
some of his niche work that include photographs and paintings of Ajanta Ellora
and Actresses of Hindi cinema.
