PRAMOD BABU

Born and brought up in Nagpur, Pramodbabu Ramteke is one of those artists whose journey tracks the evolution of art itself. Gushing as a torrent of skill out of the mountains of highly realistic portraits, his painting style streamed through jagged topographies of dilemma, self exploration and complex abstractions; eventually flowing calmly yet incessantly in quest of purer forms of expression. His paintings are highly aesthetic with an immaculate sense of proportion and compositional balance learned from his portraiture; while the fluid strokes, imaginative forms and childlike simplicity don’t fail to enchant the depths of one’s soul.

A member of The National Lalit Kala Academy since 1976, his artworks are at display permanently in various national galleries and museums like Lalit kala akademy New Delhi, NGMA New Delhi, Bharat Bhawan Bhopal, State LKA AP, State Lalit Kala Akademi Chennai, Directorate of Art Maharashtra State Mumbai, Bombay art society, NGMA Mumbai, SCZCC Nagpur & many more. His live oil portrait of President of India, Hon. KR Narayanan has been installed at the London School of Economics, London.

Early Life

Born on 23rd April 1944 to a middle class Ayurvedic healer, Pramod Babu was the 10th born child of his parents. Out of the many siblings, only one brother and two sisters survived the difficult childhood. Although financially challenged, his family was artistically and intellectually inclined. Many of his uncles and cousins were folk-singers, qawwals, painters and socially active individuals. Having lost his mother at the nascent age of 2, this extended family never let him feel her absence. Despite what the conditions may suggest, Pramod was a happy child and art was an inseparable part of his life it right from the beginning.

As a child, he enjoyed drawing and singing. With time, he got drawn towards drawing and subsequently painting. After finding Science too rational for the artist within, he took his formal education in drawing & painting from Shaskiya Kala Mahavidyalaya, Govt. Polytechnic, Nagpur. He eventually completed his G.D. Art & Art Master studies while working as a draftsman in Indian Navy. He was a lecturer in the prestigious JJ School of Arts, Mumbai.

Rock Portraits

A milestone in his continuous exploration of newer mediums, expressions and forms came in June 2015, in a show titled “ROCK PORTRAITS”. This one of its kind exhibition had twenty beautiful semi realistic portraits combined with abstract motifs painted on natural random shaped stones, without disturbing or cutting their original forms. Although painting on rocks after cutting them into regular shapes like cube or sphere is not new; painting proportionate portraits on random sized stone having absurd reliefs, depths and textures is a breakthrough. Sometimes one eye is painted on relieved portion and another in a crevice, maintaining visual proportions all along! Every stone is different and poses a different challenge. The artist has to create the optical illusion of a face in such a way that though the work is painted on relieves and depths, it should give the visual illusion of plain surface when viewed from certain angle or distance. To achieve this two dimensional effect on an irregular three dimensional surface requires perfection in judgement, planning,understanding of different planes, a deep study of anatomy, compositional values, application of colour, rich design sense and many more things.Only when all of this falls in place like notes of a complex symphony, the final result is music to the connoisseur’s eyes.

He has held solo shows in Nationai Gallery of Modern Art Mumbai, Jahangir Art Gallery and group shows in Art Galleries across India like LKA New Delhi, Bharat Bhawan Bhopal , Birla Art Akademy Kolkata, Shantiniketan Kala Bhavan, Goa, Chandigarh, Patiala, LKA Chennai and overseas galleries in Indonesia, Thailand and Chicago.

The National Gallary of Modern Art, organised his retrospective exhibition for two months at sir cowasji jehangir hall NGMA Mumbai from 21 Sep 2021 to 20 Nov 2021 Also the Book “Form to Formless” has been released by The National Gallary of Modern Art, Cultural ministry , Government of India, at at sir cowasji jehangir hall NGMA Mumbai on 10 Feb 2024.

Beyond Paintings

Pramodbabu has given numerous Television & Radio lectures on Aesthetics of Art. He writes regularly on Portraiture & modern creative paintings for magazines & newspapers. Apart from his contribution to arts, Pramodbabu actively raised awareness about plight of the socially oppressed sections across various social & religious forums. He has been a passionate practitioner and instructor of martial arts. He has published his art book titled ‘Palette” for the art students and art lovers, which is comprised of his own experiences in his art journey, as a student and as a artist.