Shree Lal Joshi is a versatile and renowned Indian painter. He is mainly known for phad painting which is a form of popular folk painting of Rajasthan. In his career span of six decades, he has carved a niche for himself by discovering varied new techniques to create meaningful compositions. In addition to phad, Joshi is also famous for wall paintings. He is the recipient of various national and international awards including Padma Shri Award and SAARC International Award. His sons, Kalyan and Gopal are also notable phad painters.
Early Life of Shree Lal Joshi
He was born on March 5, 1931 at Shahpura in Bhilwara district in a Joshi family. His family is notable for being the traditional artists of phad painting for the last few centuries.
Career of Shree Lal Joshi
His father Ramchandra Joshi inspired him to take this creative art from seriously at the young age of 13. Joshi is known for providing new dimensions of identification to phad painting by developing contemporary style. He developed his own style and discovered varied new techniques to create meaningful compositions.
Joshi has introduced small sized phad paintings with new themes. The paintings exhibited episodes of the Devnarayan Mahagatha, the battle of Haldighati and the jauhar (self-immolation) of Padmini, the lives of Maharana Pratap, Prithvi Raj Chouhan, Rani Hadi, Dhola Maru, Amar Singh Rathore, Buddha, Mahavira. The painting also featured narratives from the Gitagovindam, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Kumarasambhava.
Tukras or "small pieces" paintings were also introduced by him. He is also popular for wall paintings. He does wall painting in ancient fresco style. Horses, Elephant, Lions, and women with the pitchers on their heads are the usual motifs that can be observed in his painting.
The works of Joshi have been found in the collections of various museums namely National Museum; Indira Gandhi Nationa Art Museum; Hare Krishna Museum, Kurushetra; Bhartia Lok Kala Mandal, Udaipur; Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur; Linden Museum, Germany; Leforet Museum, Japan; Albert Museum, London; Landes Museum, Austria; Smith Sonian Museum, Washington; Syracuse University; USA Etenografisca Museum, Stolkholm, and also in the museums of Singapore, Germany, Netherlands and France.
Achievements of Shree Lal Joshi
Joshi"s works made him earn a number of awards. His national and international awards are as follows:
International Awards
•SAARC International Award, Islamabad
•Black Magician Award, German Festival, Stuttgart
National Awards
•In 2007, he won Shilpaguru Award and Sangeet Shyamla Award.
•In 2006, he was honoured with Padma Shri Award.
•In 1994, he received Bhuwalka Public Welfare Award.
•In 1989, Haryana Government honoured him with Kala Shree Award.
•In 1984, he won National Award.
•In 1979, he received Silver Award.
