Chandigarh
30 January 2018
DIVYA AZAD
To pay tributes to artist Malkit Singh, who passed away on 19th January 2018 at the age of 75, Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi organised a get together of artists, art lovers, art writers, his friends and admirers at the Punjab Kala Bhawan, Chandigarh this evening. A slide show of his art works and photographs of his life and artistic journey was also presented.
Those who came to be part of the remembrance included writers, poets, artists, his friends and family members. His son Gurvinder Singh, who also did his BFA from College of Art Chandigarh and is now settled in Canada, also attended the meeting.
Nirupama Dutt, well known journalist and poet who writes on art and culture shared her thoughts on Malkits life and artistic journey. Nirupama has been following the trajectory of Malkit’s art both as a journalist as well as a friend for the past almost four and half decades.
Diwan Manna, artist and President of Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi talked about the artistic and social concerns of Malkit, who was a Punjabi to the core. Fields and farmers, human suffering, problems related to the rural Punjab inhabited his canvas and mindscape. Scare crow, fields, goat, hospital were recurring motifs in his works. Diwan also spoke about how Malkit portrayed the pain and suffering of Punjab through the portrait of his mother which does not resemble his own mother but, perhaps, is seen through his eyes as mother Punjab. Other speakers included his contemporary and fellow artists Prem Singh and S. S. Bhatti.
Those who attended the memorial meeting included artists, Balvinder, Viney Vadhera, Madan Lal, Vijay Ozo, Jaskanwal, Mahesh Prajapati, Sadhna Sanghar, Gurdeep Dhiman (Secretary PLKA), Anand Shende, Pramod Arya, Manjot, Vishal Bhatnagar, and journalist Sidhu Damdami, Daljeet Saran, POET, WRITER and IPS officer Manmohan Singh. Political scientist and artist/poet Bhupinder Brar, Gurdev Chauhan, Gabby, Sarbjeet among others.
