Richard Bartholomew
Encyclopedia
Richard Lawrence Bartholomew (1926–1985) was an art critic, photographer, painter, poet and writer.
), where he was born, during the Second World War. In order to escape the Japanese capture of Burma and the imminent persecution on account of their Christian names, Bartholomew fled with his family, walking the General Stilwell Road from Mandalay
to Ledo
in upper Assam
, India
. His schooling at St. Paul’s in Rangoon (Yangon) was interrupted because of the Japanese invasion and Bartholomew finished high school in Delhi’s Cambridge School. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in 1950. While at St. Stephens, he met Rati Batra, his future wife, who was herself a refugee from Pakistan
who came to India during the Partition
in 1947. Bartholomew lived in India as a stateless citizen till 1967 when he took on Indian citizenship, thereby closing all possibilities of returning to Burma which had become a dictatorship from the early 1960s.
. Bartholomew’s sophisticated body of work during the formative years of modern Indian art offers contemporary readers a rare, intimate glimpse into the beginnings of Modernism in India.
Through numerous reviews published from the early 50s till the late 70s in publications like The Indian Express
, The Times of India
and Thought, Bartholomew documented the artistic trajectories of now legendary painters such as Francis Newton Souza
, Tyeb Mehta
, Biren De, Ram Kumar
, Akbar Padamsee
, SH Raza, Krishen Khanna, Sailoz Mookherjea
, Bhupen Khakkar, Satish Gujral
; sculptors like Ramkinkar Baij
, Dhanraj Bhagat, Chintamoni Kar, Somnath Hore
, Sankho Chaudhuri
; graphic artists including Kanwal Krishna, Devayani Krishna, Krishna Reddy
, Jagmohan Chopra, Jyoti Bhatt
as well as renowned photographers Raghu Rai
and TS Satyan.
Besides a series of significant articles on Indian and Tibetan art
, Bartholomew also co-authored, Husain, a monograph on M.F. Husain which was published by Harry Abrams, New York in 1972. In 1974, he published a monograph on Krishna Reddy
. He also wrote poems and short stories which were published in prestigious magazines like Thought and Illustrated Weekly
.
’s collection of religious artifacts and travelled with them to the US and Japan. He was also the recipient of the John D. Rockefeller 3rd
Award in 1970. He was appointed Commissioner of the Silver Jubilee of Indian Independence exhibition held in Washington DC in 1973 and travelled to UK in 1982 as a British Council
Visitor and as Commissioner of the Festival of India Exhibition held in Britain in 1982. Bartholomew served as the Secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi
from 1977 to 1985.
Barely 58, Bartholomew died in office in 1985. He is survived by his wife Rati Bartholomew and his two sons Pablo
and Robin.
Early life
Richard Bartholomew fled from Tavoy (Dawei), Burma (MyanmarMyanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
), where he was born, during the Second World War. In order to escape the Japanese capture of Burma and the imminent persecution on account of their Christian names, Bartholomew fled with his family, walking the General Stilwell Road from Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
to Ledo
Ledo
Ledo may refer to:* Ledo, Assam, India* Ledo, Goa, India* Ledo Road* Ledo Degtinė* Ledo , a Croatian ice cream producer...
in upper Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. His schooling at St. Paul’s in Rangoon (Yangon) was interrupted because of the Japanese invasion and Bartholomew finished high school in Delhi’s Cambridge School. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in 1950. While at St. Stephens, he met Rati Batra, his future wife, who was herself a refugee from Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
who came to India during the Partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947. Bartholomew lived in India as a stateless citizen till 1967 when he took on Indian citizenship, thereby closing all possibilities of returning to Burma which had become a dictatorship from the early 1960s.
Photographer, Painter, Poet
Bartholomew pursued a career not only as an art critic but also as a writer, poet, painter and curator. Solo shows of his work were held in Delhi and Bombay in the 50s. Between then and the ‘70s, he keenly documented life around him through photography. Though he rarely exhibited his photographic work during his lifetime, his pictures intimately portrayed his family and his circle of artist friends and associates and his travels in India and the US.Art Critic & Writer
Bartholomew was a pioneering art critic in that he was one of the first who initiated a serious dialogue with the painters of the time. He fostered a sense of community within the artists and communicated their ideals to the public who were not entirely receptive or convinced of the daring, artistic exploration of India’s Progressive Art MovementBombay Progressive Artists' Group
The Bombay Progressive Artists' Group was the most influential group of modern artists in India from its formation in 1947, they combined Indian subject matter with Post-Impressionist colours, Cubist forms and brusque, Expressionistic styles....
. Bartholomew’s sophisticated body of work during the formative years of modern Indian art offers contemporary readers a rare, intimate glimpse into the beginnings of Modernism in India.
Through numerous reviews published from the early 50s till the late 70s in publications like The Indian Express
The Indian Express
The Indian Express is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is published in Mumbai by Indian Express Group. After Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split in 1999 among his family members into two with the southern editions taking the name The New Indian Express, while the old...
, The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
and Thought, Bartholomew documented the artistic trajectories of now legendary painters such as Francis Newton Souza
Francis Newton Souza
Francis Newton Souza , commonly referred to as F. N. Souza, was an Indian artist. He was a founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group of Bombay, and was the first post-independence Indian artist to achieve high recognition in the West...
, Tyeb Mehta
Tyeb Mehta
Tayyabb Mehta was a noted Indian painter. He was part of the noted Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, which included greats like F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and M.F...
, Biren De, Ram Kumar
Ram Kumar
Ram Kumar is a contemporary Indian artist who has been described as one of India's foremost abstract painters. Educated as an economist with an M.A. from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, Ram Kumar took classes at the Sharda Ukil School of Art, and then went to Paris and studied further there under...
, Akbar Padamsee
Akbar Padamsee
Akbar Padamsee is a contemporary Indian artist.He received his diploma from the Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, in 1951...
, SH Raza, Krishen Khanna, Sailoz Mookherjea
Sailoz Mookherjea
Sailoz Mookherjea was an Indian painter. He is one of the early modernists who showed a flair for simplification of forms, vigorous lines and dynamic movement. He is on the 1979 list of Nine Masters of Archeological Survey of India. His work was deeply inspired by people and the environment...
, Bhupen Khakkar, Satish Gujral
Satish Gujral
Satish Gujral is an Indian painter, sculptor, muralist, graphic designer and architect. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1999....
; sculptors like Ramkinkar Baij
Ramkinkar Baij
Ramkinkar Baij was an Indian Santhal sculptor, known as the Pioneer of Modern Indian Sculpture. He was one of the first Indian Adivasi artists to understand the language of modern Western art and use it in his sculptures...
, Dhanraj Bhagat, Chintamoni Kar, Somnath Hore
Somnath Hore
Somnath Hore was an Indian sculptor and printmaker. His sketches, sculptures and prints were a reaction to major historical crises and events of 20th century Bengal, such as the Bengal Famine of 1943 and the Tebhaga movement.- Early life :...
, Sankho Chaudhuri
Sankho Chaudhuri
Sankho Chaudhuri was an Indian sculptor, a noted figure in the art scene of India....
; graphic artists including Kanwal Krishna, Devayani Krishna, Krishna Reddy
Krishna Reddy
Krishna Reddy is an Indian printmaker and sculptor.-Education:He studied at Vishva-Bharait University, Shantiniketan, West Bengal, from 1941 to 1946, with a degree in Fine Art. From 1947-1950, Reddy was head of the art section at Kalaksherra, Madras...
, Jagmohan Chopra, Jyoti Bhatt
Jyoti Bhatt
Jyotindra Manshankar Bhatt , is an Indian artist best known for his modernist work in painting and printmaking and also his photographic documentation of rural Indian culture. He studied painting under N. S. Bendre and K.G. Subramanyan at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao Universtity ,...
as well as renowned photographers Raghu Rai
Raghu Rai
Raghu Rai is an Indian photographer and photojournalist. A protege of Henri Cartier-Bresson who appointed Rai, then a young photojournalist to Magnum Photos in 1977, which he co-founded....
and TS Satyan.
Besides a series of significant articles on Indian and Tibetan art
Tibetan art
Tibetan art refers to the art of Tibet. For more than a thousand years, Tibetan artists have played a key role in the cultural life of Tibet. From designs for painted furniture to elaborate murals in religious buildings, their efforts have permeated virtually every facet of life on the Tibetan...
, Bartholomew also co-authored, Husain, a monograph on M.F. Husain which was published by Harry Abrams, New York in 1972. In 1974, he published a monograph on Krishna Reddy
Krishna Reddy
Krishna Reddy is an Indian printmaker and sculptor.-Education:He studied at Vishva-Bharait University, Shantiniketan, West Bengal, from 1941 to 1946, with a degree in Fine Art. From 1947-1950, Reddy was head of the art section at Kalaksherra, Madras...
. He also wrote poems and short stories which were published in prestigious magazines like Thought and Illustrated Weekly
The Illustrated Weekly of India
The Illustrated Weekly of India was an English language weekly newsmagazine publication in India. It started publication in 1880 and ceasing publication in 1993...
.
Gallerist & Curator
Bartholomew was the Gallery Director of Kunika-Chemould, New Delhi’s first commercial gallery for contemporary art. Subsequently, from 1966–1973, he worked with the Tibet House, New Delhi as their curator and development officer where he personally catalogued the Dalai LamaDalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
’s collection of religious artifacts and travelled with them to the US and Japan. He was also the recipient of the John D. Rockefeller 3rd
John D. Rockefeller 3rd
John Davison Rockefeller 3rd was a major philanthropist and third-generation member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the eldest son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the grandson of John D. Rockefeller...
Award in 1970. He was appointed Commissioner of the Silver Jubilee of Indian Independence exhibition held in Washington DC in 1973 and travelled to UK in 1982 as a British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
Visitor and as Commissioner of the Festival of India Exhibition held in Britain in 1982. Bartholomew served as the Secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi
Lalit Kala Akademi
The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of Art is India's National Academy of Arts. It was an autonomous organization, established at New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, both within and outside the country...
from 1977 to 1985.
Barely 58, Bartholomew died in office in 1985. He is survived by his wife Rati Bartholomew and his two sons Pablo
Pablo Bartholomew
Pablo Bartholomew is an award-winning Indian photojournalist.Pablo Bartholomew is an independent photographer based in New Delhi, India...
and Robin.
External links
- The Official website
- Ram Rahman on Photography in India, Seminar
- The Hindustan Times, Mint Review of 'A Critic's Eye', an exhibition of Bartholomew's photographs at Sepia International Gallery, New York
- The Indian Express Review of 'A Critic's Eye', an exhibition of Bartholomew's photographs at PHOTOINK, New Delhi
- The Hindu Review of 'A Critic's Eye' at PHOTOINK, New Delhi
- The Hindustan Times Review of 'A Critic's Eye' at PHOTOINK, New Delhi
- The Asian Age Review of 'A Critic's Eye' at PHOTOINK, New Delhi