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Life and Work

Desmond Lazaro © Beck & Eggeling

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)

Desmond Lazaro, Playground I, 2009
Desmond Lazaro, Playground I, 2009
Desmond Lazaro, Untitled, 2009, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Untitled, 2009, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, The Golden House, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, The Golden House, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Udaipur Tonga, 2009, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Udaipur Tonga, 2009, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, A Portrait in Red, 2011, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Chettinad Tile III (4-parts), 2009, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, A long Wait, 2011, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Study for Blue House II Part 1 und Part 2, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Man asleep, 2009, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Waiting Looking, 2011, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Carpet Living Room III, 2011/2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Two Men from Chettinad, 2011, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Study for Blue House III, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Golden Square House study II, 2012
Desmond Lazaro, Golden Square House Study I, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Blue Coconut Palm Leaf, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Study for Blue House II Part 1 und Part 2, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Study for Coconut Palm, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Coconut palm leaf drawing, 2012, © Desmond Lazaro
Desmond Lazaro, Jetty, 2009, © Desmond Lazaro

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

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 €
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EIN BAUM IST EIN BAUM IST EIN BAUM...

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 €
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Further publications

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

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