Kashmiri Painters

A painter is an artist or craftsperson who creates works with paint. Some choose to train themselves while others are formally trained through art school or an apprenticeship. Painters, like all artists, have the potential to become famous or wealthy as a result of their work. But most painters do it out of a love and passion for it, rather than for the prospect of a lucrative return. Kashmir gave a lot of such famous artists to us. Also being home to most beautiful landscapes of our country, it is also a painter’s paradise. Lets take a look at some popular Kashmiri painters.

Here are top 7 Kashmiri Painters:

Lets take a look at each one of them in brief:

Manohar Kaul

Srinagar-born artist Manohar Kaul , was a well-known 20th-century painter. The majority of his work consisted of natures capes that depicted the valley’s grandeur and immense beauty.

He was aware of the valley’s tensions and unrest, but he never reflected these negative aspects in his work. This is because he believed that the will to change could only emerge if people realized how beautiful their homeland was and what they were doing to it.

His paintings exemplified a fusion of contemporary art and modern impressions. He was also the President and Chairman of the AIFACS and is one of the finest Kashmiri painters.

Veer Munshi

Another notable figure in the field of art, Veer Munshi was born in 1955. Born and raised in Kashmir, his early paintings focused on the valley’s natural beauty and grandeur. He depicted in the form of landscapes that were all very pretty.

However, he, like many other innocent Kashmiri pundits, became a victim of the late-twentieth-century exodus. Witnessing and experiencing extreme turmoil before being forced to migrate to

Delhi in 1990, leaving behind his motherland. Since then, his works have reflected his suffering and oppression. With the goal of exposing atrocities and presenting the true Kashmir to the world.

Dina Nath Walli

He was also known as ‘Almast Kashmiri,’ was a well-known watercolor artist whose works depicted everyday scenes in Kashmir. He lived in Srinagar and created landscapes based on various locations and visuals in the city. Apart from painting, he was also a poet.

As evidenced by the two well-known collections of his poetry, “Bala Yapair” and “Sahaavukh Posh”. Riverside Temple (1956), A Houseboat in Moonlight (1967) and other works are among his most well-known watercolors. They all depict the mundane sights of Srinagar.

He is considered as one of the best Kashmiri painters. For his significant contributions to the field of art, he received gold medals. First from the Government of Kashmir in 1939 and second the Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta in 1940.

Gulam Rasool Santosh

G. R. Santosh was another well-known Kashmiri poet-painter who was born in old Srinagar to a middle-class Muslim family. He dropped out of school soon after his father’s death. Then he began working at petty jobs such as writing, whitewashing, painting, and so on to make ends meet and support the family.

In 1954, he won a scholarship to study fine arts in Baroda under the renowned Indian painter N.S Bendre. He studied ‘Tantric art’ and ‘Kashmir Shaivism’ in the early 1960s. He eventually became a master of both, and his paintings.

Kishori Kaul

In 1939, Kishori Kaul was born in Srinagar. Her father was a Kashmiri Pandit with unconventional views who worked for the government. She attended the Annie Besant School in Srinagar. The year 1953 was a watershed moment in her life. She became ill with tuberculosis, and while she lay tossing between hope and disappointment.

Her grandfather, Narayan Mu, whose father was Narayan Muratgar, was a celebrated late-nineteenth-century painter. He placed before her brush, colours, and paper, and thus set the ball of aesthetic sensibility rolling in her mind.

Kishori had a talent for painting before, but she became so engrossed in her artistic work that she forgot about her surroundings, which were full of sorrows and sufferings. As a result, she was cured of her dreaded disease while also emerging as a great painter.

It was a fantastic occupational therapy for her that resulted in a cataclysmic change in her life and character.

Triloke Kaul

Famous Triloke Kaul studied painting at the Maharaja Sayaji Rao University of Baroda. He was the director of the School of Design and is one of the well known Kashmiri painters. His approach to painting was also influenced by landscape.

The architecture of Kashmiri houses in space, in particular, set his imagination free. To solve the problems of space, movement, and color, he stuck to the cubistic, analytic procedure throughout. He kept calculating all the steps required to solve the problem like a mathematician.

Maheshwar Nath Dhar

Shree Maheshwer Nath Dhar, the boy-grew up in close association of the miracles of nature. Still in his early teens he started building clay forts, hills, modelling birds, trees, natural scenery and everything that caught his imagination. At the age of fourteen he left for Gwalior and returned after eight years in 1910 AD.

During his short stay there he worked in the State Public Works department as a draftsman.  Back in his native town of Srinagar, he gave a display of photography, portraits and many portraits of “Yog Sadhna” . He also gave spritual portraits on different mantras of Goddess Uma, Raginia Bhagwati and Shail Putri.

These Kashmiri painters made their name all over the country with their artistic style and creativity and gave us eye pleasing works. If loved this article than make sure to like and share this article and if you think we missed some names than make sure to tell us in the comment section down below.