Rameshwar Broota was born in 1941. He graduated from the Delhi College of Art and later became a faculty member there. He has also taught art at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. In 1975 he visited France under a cultural exchange program and later exhibited his work at the National Art Fair held in Cagnes-sur-mer, Paris, in 1976. He has represented India at the III, IV and V Triennales held in India and the II Havana Biennale held in Cuba in 1986. He has also exhibited his work at the Museum of Moden art in Oxford, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington and the Damstadt Museum in Germany. He is a recipient of the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1980, 1981 and 1984. He currently heads the Department of Art, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi. The artist lives and works in New Delhi.

Broota’s work easily combines the mythical and the real, and creates a sense of absurdity through the striking differences between the two. The icons and images that he uses are all part of his subconscious self. As an artist, Broota feels that he may choose to reveal or recreate the immediate reality, but he also dwells in the inexhaustible past. “The unconscious is a store house of immense knowledge and impressions which an individual absorbs and retains with him. When he assumes the body of an infant, he inherits the sum total of the experiences of his predecessor from time immemorial”, he points out. In his Gorilla series, for instance, the artist says he "tried to depict a pre-human reality typified by a terrifying brutality… Over the years that feeling has been toned down. Now there is a certain mystic quality to my paintings.”

The artist is known for his paintings of male bodies, both muscular and emaciated, testament to the passage of time. Over the years, Broota has perfected his unique technique, discovered by accident, in which he first applies layers of different coloured paint on the surface followed by a final coat in a dark colour, and then scratches and scrapes away the upper layers of the painting with a sharp knife, to literally unearth his luminous images. 

The artist lives and works in New Delhi.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2014 – ‘Visions of interiority: interrogating the male body, Rameshwar Broota: A Retrospective | Works from 1963-2013′, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi
2012 – ‘Traces of Man’, XVA Gallery Dubai
2011 – ‘This End to the Other – Recent photographs by Rameshwar Broota’, Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkatta
2011 – ‘Everything is part of itself: a suite of 24 photographs’, 1×1 Art Gallery, Dubai
2011 – ‘This End to the Other’(photographs), presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi and Vadehra Art Gallery, Defence Colony, New Delhi
2009 – ‘Counterparts’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi
2008 – ‘Photographs by Rameshwar Broota’, presented by Sakshi Gallery and Vadehra Art Gallery at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
2007 – ‘Rameshwar Broota’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi
2004 – ‘Archeology of Experience’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi; National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai, Gallery 88 Kolkatta, and Vadehra Art Gallery, Defence Colony, New Delhi
2001 – ‘Edge of Precipice’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi and Vadehra Art Gallery, Defence Colony, New Delhi
1998 – ‘The Winding Spiral’, Vadehra Art Gallery and Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi
1990 – ‘Faces’, Genesis Art Gallery, Kolkatta
19862 – ‘Man Series’, Calcutta Art Gallery, Kolkatta

Selected Group Exhibitions

2012 – ‘Roti, Kapda aur Makaan’, Ojas Art, New Delhi
2011 – ‘Form and Formlessness’, Art Alive Gallery, Gurgaon
2011 – ‘Natural Bodies, Subverted Canons’, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010-11 – ‘Figure/Landscape: Part Two’, Aicon Gallery, London
2010 – ‘Freedom to March: Rediscovering Gandhi through Dandi’, presented by Ojas Art at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2010 – ’10 X 10’, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi
2010 – ‘Paper Trail’, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2009 – ‘Progressive to Altermodern: 62 years of Indian Modern Art’, Grosvenor Vadehra Gallery, London
2009 – ‘Zip Files’, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2009 – ‘Master Class’, The Arts Trust, Mumbai
2008 – ‘Modern and Contemporary Indian Art’, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Dlehi
2008 – ‘Still Moving Image’, Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon
2008 – ‘Mapping Memories – 1’, Painted Travelogues of China and Greece, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi
2007 – ‘Body Mind Soul’, presented by Gallery Threshold at Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi
2007 – ‘The Eye Within’, presented by The Shrine Gallery at Romain Rolland Gallery, Alliance Francaise, New Delhi
2006-07 – ‘Indian Art II/III: Inventing/Inverting Traditions’, Grosvenor Vadehra Gallery, London
2000 – ‘Celebration of Human Image’, presented by Gallery 42, Habitat Art Gallery, New Delhi
2000 – ‘Distillations’, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai
2000 – ‘Contemporary Indian Painting’, presented by Art Motif, Habitat Centre, New Delhi
2000 – ‘A Decade of the Gallery at the turn of the Century’, L.T.G. Art Gallery, New Delhi
1999 – ‘Contemporary Art of India’, Peabody Essex Museum, USA
1999 – ‘Contemporary Indian Art’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery, Mumbai and New Delhi
1998 – ‘Multimedia Art of 90’s’, CIMA Art Gallery, Kolkatta
1998 – Group show with Jogen Chowdhury, Manjit Bawa and Gieve Patel, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
1997 – ‘Colours of Independence’ at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, in association with CIMA ARt Gallery, Kolkatta
1997 – ‘Intuitive Logic II’, Osian’s exhibition and auction in New Delhi and Mumbai
1997 – Masanori Fukuoka’s Contemporary Indian Art Collection, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata
1997 – ‘50 Years of Indian Independence’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
1997 – ‘Tryst with Destiny’ organized by CIMA, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
1997 – ‘Major Trends in Contemporary Indian Art after Independence’, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1996 – ‘Modern and Contemporary Indian Paintings 100 Years’, Sotheby’s, London
1995 – ‘Contemporary Indian Paintings from the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection-Part I’, at Sotheby’s auction, New York
1995 – ‘Indian Contemporary Paintings’, Christie’s auction, London
1995 – ‘River of Art’, inaugural exhibition of Art Today, New Delhi
1989 – ‘The Timeless Art’, exhibition and auction by Sotheby’s, Mumbai
1988 – Takaoka Municipal Museum of Art and Meguro Museum of Art, Japan
1987 – Coups de Coeur, Halles de L’lle, Geneva
1987 – ‘Six Painters’ Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi
1984 – ‘Ten Artists’, Gallery 7, Mumbai
1982 – ‘Modern Indian Painting from the National Gallery of modern Art’, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C
1982 – ‘Contemporary Indian Paintings’, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany
1980 – ‘Contemporary Indian Art’, Dubai
1973-74 – Touring exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art in Poland, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Bulgaria and Belgium
1965-70 – participated in several group shows at Delhi Shilpi Chakra, New Delhi

Participations

Honors and Awards

2013 – ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’, Lalit Arpan Festival, Asavari, New Delhi
1997 – ‘Kala Vibhushan’, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi
1988 – LN Gupta Memorial Award, Max Mueller Bhavan, Hyderabad
1987, 88 – Senior Fellowship from the Ministry of Education, Government of India
1980, 81 and 84 – National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1976 – Hyderabad Art Society Award for Graphics

1973, 75 – All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award, New Delhihi