Life and Work
Raised in Leeds, England as the son of Indian parents, Desmond Lazaro was constantly in search of his roots. He traveled to India and studied painting in Vadodara (Gujarat, India), where studied the art of Pichhvai painting – a specific style of Indian miniature painting – over many years in Jaipur and Nathdwara (Rajasthan, India).
The Rajasthanian Pichhvai tradition encompasses many aspects of art production from handmade pigments, canvases, and brushes to the actual painting of the miniatures with impressive precision and traditional Indian ornamentation.
While Lazaro's working methods and the handcrafted painting utensils are firmly anchored in Indian tradition, the subjects are thoroughly contemporary and seemingly everyday: they include interiors, letterboxes, or people on a stroll. But all objects and figures are part of a culturally and historically entangled iconography and repeatedly reflect his experiences of a multicultural existence. Lazaro's many years of expertise in the special Pichhvai painting style has earned him international recognition and diverse exhibition platforms. His examination of the poles of tradition and modernity, traditional craftsmanship and innovation, East and West, religion and secularism, also makes his visually fine work universally relevant in its themes.
Desmond Lazaro was born in Leeds in 1968. He followed his university degree with a Master Degree from the renowned University of Vadodara in India and a doctorate on the Pichhvai tradition from the Prince's School of Traditional Art in London. In 2004, he founded a company producing handmade paper, pigments, and brushes, as well as a foundation dedicated to the revival and promotion of traditional art in northern India. Desmond Lazaro lives at various stations in Delhi, Goa, and Pondiycherry as well as in Melbourne, Australia.
Biography
1968 | born in Leeds, GB |
1987 – 1990 | Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art / First Class Honours at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, GB |
1995 – 1997 | Master of Arts in Visual Islamic & Traditional Art at the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture (P.O.W.I.A), London, GB |
1998 – 2000 | Promotion »The Pichhvai Painting Tradition« at The Prince's School of Traditional Arts, London, (GB) |
lives and works in Melbourne, AUS |
Prizes and Awards
1997 | I.N.T.A.C.H Stipendium für Indien, IN |
1990 | Commonwealth Stipendium nach Indien an der M.S. University of Baroda mit dem Abschluss Master of Arts in Malerei, Baroda, IN |
Works (Selection)
Solo exhibitions (selection)
2022 | Cosmos, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, IN |
2020 | Identities ‒ Desmond Lazaro & Gehard Demetz, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, DE |
2016 | The In-Coming Passengers, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, IN |
2012 | Desmond Lazaro, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, GB Desmond Lazaro. Recent Works, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, DE |
2010 | Desmond Lazaro. Paintings, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, DE |
2008 | Desmond Lazaro – The hand leads the eye leads the hand, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, IN |
Group exhibitions (selection)
2019 | Homelands: Art from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, GB In one drop of water, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sidney, AU |
2018 | Hashiya: The Margin, Bikaner House, Neu-Delhi, IN Planetary Planning, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka Gelb macht glücklich, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, DE Sensorium: The End is Only the Beginning, Sunaparanta – Goa Center for the Arts, Goa, IN |
2017 | India Re-Worlded: Seventy Years of Investigating a Nation, Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai, IN |
2016 | Revisiting Beauty, Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi, IN Promise: The Family Portrait, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, IN |
2015 | Ein Baum ist ein Baum ist ein Baum, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, DE Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, US |
2014 | Aesthetic Bind: Floating World, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, IN |
2013 | The Blue Route – Journeys and Beauties from the Mediterranean Sea to China, Fondation Boghossian – Villa Empain, Brussels, BE |
2009 | Indian Style, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, DE |
2006 | Kurzfilm – Pichhvai Painting, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, US |
2004 | Materialien und Techniken der Pigmentmalerei, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, CH |
2003 | Pichhvai, Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Nice, FR Painting Pichhvai, British Council, Neu-Delhi, IN |
2000 | British High Commission, Neu-Delhi, IN Pichhvai Painting, Royal Commonwealth Society, London |
1999 | Dean Clough Art Center, Halifax |
1997 | Colours of the Earth, Yew Tree Gallery, Oxford |
1995 | Merge and Forgive, Contemporary Galleries, Ahmedabad, IN |
1994 | Merge and Forgive, M. S. University of Baroda, Baroda, IN |
1990 | Young Contemporaries, Bonham's of Knightsbridge, London, GB Young Contemporaries, New Academy Art Gallery, London Young Contemporaries, Mall Galleries, London |
EXHIBITIONS AT BECK & EGGELING (SELECTION)
Publications
Desmond Lazaro
- Artist: Desmond Lazaro
Editor: Ute Eggeling, Michael Beck
Text: David Galloway, Eberhard Fischer, Desmond Lazaro
Design: Reschke, Steffens & Kruse - English, German
Hardcover, 28,5 x 24,3 cm
76 pages, 34 illustrations - Beck & Eggeling Kunstverlag, 2010
ISBN 978-3-93091962-8 - 28 €
EIN BAUM IST EIN BAUM IST EIN BAUM...
- Artists: Aljoscha, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Nikos Aslanidis, Georg Baselitz, Susanne Kühn, Herbert Beck, Stefania Beretta, Tony Bevan, Nicole Bianchet, Karl Bohrmann, Alkis Boutlis, Joachim Brohm, Heribert C. Ottersbach, Jonas Burgert, Marc Chagall, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Joachim Elzmann, Mitch Epstein, Max Ernst, Elger Esser, Ori Gersht, Wolf Hamm, Andrea C. Hoffer, Katie Holten, Leiko Ikemura, Hugó Johann, Akane Kimbara, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Karin Kneffel, Oskar Kokoschka, Victor Kraus, Desmond Lazaro, Robert Longo, Sophia Loth, Britta Lumer, Heinz Mack, August Macke, René Magritte, Hedwig Marquardt, Richard Mosse, Hartmut Neumann, Apostolos Palavrakis, Sigmar Polke, Christian Rohlfs, Robert Schad, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Valentina Seidel, Emma Stibbon, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Geoff Uglow, Manolo Valdés, Christian Weihrauch, Stefan à Wengen, René Wirths, Thomas Wrede, Kailiang Yang
Editor: Ute Eggeling, Michael Beck
Text: Ute Eggeling, Herwig Guratzsch, Kirsten Nordahl
Design: Beck & Eggeling (Antonia Eggeling, Martina Löhle) - German, English
Softcover, 28 x 22 cm
88 pages, 128 illustrations - Beck & Eggeling Kunstverlag, 2015
ISBN 978-3-94606300-1 - 30 €
bibliography
Desmond Lazaro: Cosmos, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai 2022 |
Desmond Lazaro: The In-Coming Passengers, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai 2016 |
Desmond Lazaro, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London 2012 |
Desmond Lazaro, Beck & Eggeling Kunstverlag, Düsseldorf 2010 (Text: David Galloway, Eberhard Fischer) |
Desmond Peter Lazaro, Materials, Methods and Symbolism in the Pichhvai Painting of Rajasthan, Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad 2005 |
Materialien und Techniken der Pigmentmalerei in Rajasthan, Museum Rietberg, Zürich 2004 |