Sohan Qadri

1932

Born Sohan Singh in a village called Chachoki, in Punjab, near Kapurthala. He grows up in a wealthy farming family where his mother is Hindu and father is Sikh.

1950s

Begins his career painting using oil on canvas.

1952

Moves to Bombay where he works as a still photographer in a Bollywood studio. Discovers the works of the Progressive Artists’ Group, particularly S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, and F. N. Souza at the J. J. School of Art.

1953-54

Leaves for remote temples and monasteries in the Himalayas and Tibet for long periods of silence and meditation, staying for several months amongst spiritualists and forest dwellers; abandoning figural representation in his work upon return and adopting, instead, a philosophy akin to the Calcutta Group and Progressive Artists’ Group, of representing the feeling of transcendence through tantric symbolism and philosophy.

1955-60

Studies for his Master’s in Fine Art from Government College of Art, Simla. The curriculum is modelled after the Royal College of Arts, London. Specialises in Rajput and Mughal style of paintings.

1961

Dr. Mulk Raj Anand, the writer and founder-editor of the art journal Marg, recognises Qadri’s talent. Anand supports young talent all over India and becomes his first major patron.

1963

Participates in his first group show, ‘Expression in Abstract - 14 Leading Abstractionists’ alongside V. S. Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna, G. R. Santosh, Shanti Dave, Biren De, Souza and others at Kumar Gallery, New Delhi; has his second show, a solo exhibition, with the help of M. S. Randhawa, the chief commissioner of Delhi, at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, and the following year in Chandigarh.

1964

Establishes an artist collective, Loose Group, along with his mentor friend, Shiv Kumar, a poet. Loose Group is a circle of artists and poets in Kapurthala that includes practitioners such as Hardev, Shiv Singh, S. S. Mishra, Ajaib Kamal, and Ravinder Rav.

1965

Leaves India and begins a series of travels that lead him to East Africa, North America, Paris, Zurich, eventually settling in Copenhagen, Denmark, for thirty years; wherein he begins to incorporate the Scandinavian landscape and sky, through colour and space, into his work.

1966

Exhibits his work at the Galerie Romain Louis in Brussels with the help of Mark Kuhn, the Swiss art critic; shows in Paris at Galerie Arnaud.

1966-67

Receives a fellowship from the French government.

1967

Upon his return to Zurich, he receives an invitation to attend an artists’ camp in Poland where he is given lodging, food and painting material for two months.

1968

Receives the national award from by the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi. This is a period when his work is accentuated by the warmth and earthiness of India as well as of African landscapes.

1969

Visits Copenhagen at the invitation of the Danish cultural ministry. The artist shows his work in Vienna at the gallery Uni Generation, and at the government printing press, d’Orchai. His work is also exhibited at Salon International de Paris, France.

1970s

Begins working exclusively on paper, making structural effects with ink and dye, also making incisions to provide a three-dimensionality to an otherwise two-dimensional medium.

1970

Moving away from his more modernist expressions of abstraction, creates works that point to his earliest engagement with tantra and Indian thought, particularly of the central core, seed or bindu.

1973

After settling in Copenhagen, meets Nobel laureate Heinrich Boll who subsequently buys some of his paintings and writes about him. Meanwhile, his palette shifts to pale greys, beiges and white influenced by the region’s northern light and environment. He is represented at IKI Dusseldorf, Germany. Teaches yoga and paints.

1975

Shows at the Basel Art Fair, Switzerland. In a series of works executed on jute, the artist creates abstract compositions that reveal this shift in engagement as much as his labour-intensive process.

Mid-1970s

His works from this period use oil, wax, and plaster-of-paris on canvas.

1976

Holds a solo exhibition at Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montreal, Canada.

1978

Publishes his first volume of poems, The Dot and the Dots.

1979

Appears on a television show, 'Tantra—the Asian Art of Energy', in Sweden.

1980

Doordarshan screens a documentary film on Qadri, Journey into Silence.

1982

Is honoured with the I.A.P.A.A. (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) award in Toronto, Canada.

1988

Is a part of Writer’s Workshop, Calcutta.

1990

Holds a solo exhibition at Court Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark.

1993

Shows his work at Alliance Française, Nairobi, Kenya.

1994

Has solo shows at Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi, Gallery 7, Toronto, and Gallery Shades, Singapore; holds a few solo shows in India in the subsequent years.

1999

His works are exhibited at Gallery 93, New York; over the next eight years, has yearly one-man shows in New Delhi.

2000s

His works on paper combine ink and dye with vivid tones, striations, scarring and holes to redefine the language of tantra as a visual expression.

2001

Exhibits at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York.

2004

Establishes Gyan Stumbh-Stupa, a centre for spiritual learning and 2000s practice, in the city of Phagwara, Punjab.

2007

Makes appearances on television to talk of his art and tantra, on Talk Asia, CNN International, Hong Kong; and BBC News, London.

2011

Passes away on March 1, in Toronto, Canada, at the age of seventy-eight after a prolonged illness. He leaves behind a rich legacy of art and poetry that is deeply immersed in the Indian tradition. Italian fine-art publisher Skira Editore releases Sohan Qadri: The Seer, a monograph with over eighty of the artist’s paper works and canvas paintings made between the 1960s and 2011. Scholars like Partha Mitter, Tushara Bindu Gude, and Donald Kuspit trace the artist’s trajectory and personal philosophy behind his work in their essays.

2015

His work is exhibited at ‘Frontiers Reimagined’, a collateral event of the Venice Biennale.