J P SINGHAL FOUNDATION INSTITUTED TO MARK THE LEGEND’S 1ST DEATH ANNIVERSARY

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 24^th 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.