(b. 1939)
Laxman Shreshtha was born in Nepal in 1939. After securing a degree at the University of Patna, the aspiring artist moved to Mumbai to join the Sir J.J School of Art where he did a diploma in painting (1957 -62). Later he went to Europe to further hone his skills at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris followed by a stint at London’s Central School of Art (1970). He also studied at the Academie Grande Chaumiere, S.W. Hayter’s Atelier 17, Paris (1964-67) apart from undertaking a study tour to Baltimore and San Francisco in 1971. His debut exhibition took place at Mumbai’s Taj Art Gallery (1963), which led to several shows in India and internationally. Among his selected solo exhibit are the ones at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai (2008, 2003, 1994); ‘Elaborations’, Recent works in Black and White, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai (2007); ‘Inaugural Show’, Prithvi Art Gallery, Mumbai (1994); Gallery Chemould, Mumbai (1968); and a show at Tribhuwan College, Kathmandu, Nepal almost five decades ago. His selected group shows are 'Aqua', Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, 'One Eye Sees, the Other Feels', The Viewing Room, Mumbai (both in 2012); 'Point and Line to Plane VI', Gallery Beyond (2008); ‘Tribute to Picasso’, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai (2002); ‘Aspects of Modern Indian painting’, courtesy Saffronart and Pundole, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York (2002, 2001); ‘Ideas and Images – Part IV', NGMA, Mumbai (2002); ‘The Search’, Apparao-Wallace Galleries, New York (1997); ‘Image Beyond Image’, Glenbarra Art Museum Collection, Japan, NGMA (1997); 50 Years of Freedom of Expression’, Jehangir Gallery (1997); 25 Years of Indian Art, Rabindra Bhavan, Delhi (1972); Baltimore and San Francisco (1971); Maisons des Beaux Arts, Paris (1966); Salle de la Presse, French Foreign Ministry, Paris (1966); and ‘Inaugural Exhibition’, Gallery Chemould (1963). Shreshtha's abstract works are both sensuous and meditative in their shifts and balances of colour. Though abstract, his paintings have a sense of intrigue in them, that leaves the observer, and Shreshtha himself, as he confesses, trying to understand the shades of meaning they present. The artist lives and works in Mumbai.