Rameshwar Broota Rameshwar Broota, born in New Delhi in 1941, graduated from the College of
Art, New Delhi in 1964. As the head of the Department of Art, Triveni Kala Sangam, New
Delhi, Broota has been teaching and inspiring many artists of the younger generation.
Since the beginning of his career Broota has been deeply involved in
the contemporary human situation that degrades individuals and pollutes relationship
between them on the social plane. His early oil paintings, showing, 'humanized'
gorillas, were corrosively satirical and showed the artist's concern for the socio-moral
being of man. Over the decades, though not a prolific painter, Broota evolved a technique
of painting mostly in monochrome: On the canvas surface, usually painted in matte black,
he works with a sharp, thin blade to bring in light and forms, exposing the white
surface below, creating deep spatial dimensions. In this phase he focuses on monumental
humans, wounded, hardened and somehow dehumanized. In some paintings he shows man against
a forbidding wall on which appear illegible hieroglyphics, suggesting the inscrutable
destiny of man. His highly personalized technique less painterly in application of paint,
has the quality of a graphic print.
His paintings have been shown in many solo and prestigious group shows,
namely 'Pictorial Space' presented by the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1 977), 'India:
Myth and Reality', Museum of Modem Art, Oxford (1982), 'Modern Indian Painting', Hirsch
horn Museum, Washington D.C. (1982), Biennales in Tokyo and Dhaka, 'Art for Man', Saddam
Centre for International Art, Baghdad, (1 986), International Art Fair, Cagnes-sur-Mer
(1976).
Broota lives and works in New Delhi.
