GR Santosh

1929-1997

Gulam Rasool Santosh initially trained in painting, weaving and
papier-mâché. He won a Government of India scholarship to
study fine art at the M.S. University of Baroda. He held his first
solo show in 1953 in Srinagar. Santosh was also an acclaimed
poet in Kashmiri and Urdu. His Urdu novel Samandar Pysasa Hai
was lauded, and 1979 the Sahitya Akademi awarded him for his
collection of poems in Kashmiri, titled Besukh Ruh. Since 1953,
Santosh held over thirty one-man shows in India, USA, Canada,
Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. His paintings had been exhibited
in international shows, including the Sao Paolo Biennale
(1969, 1972), Triennale-India (1968, 1978), Contemporary
Indian Art, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (1984),
and the Neo-Tantra Art, U.C. Los Angeles (1986). He received
the National Award in 1973, and Padma Shri in 1977, and won
the Artist of the Year Award in Delhi in 1984 besides several
posthumous honours in Kashmir and Delhi.