Artist Himmat Shah dies of heart attack at 92

New Delhi: Renowned artist Himmat Shah (92) died on Sunday at Jaipur's Shalby Hospital after suffering a heart attack, his close friend Himanshu Jangid told PTI.

"Although he was not feeling well for the last one week, he was actively working in his studio. On Monday, he had a heart attack following which he passed away," Jangid said.

He is survived by two sisters, who will take part in his last rites on Monday in Jaipur.

Born in Gujarat's Lothal in 1933, Shah was inadvertently introduced to terracotta art and other objects from the Indus Valley Civilisation.

He was later sent to Gharshala, a school affiliated to Dakshinamurty, where he studied under artist-educator Jagubhai Shah before joining the J J School of Art in Bombay, and then moving on to Baroda on a government cultural scholarship from 1956 to 1960.

In Baroda, he was influenced by N S Bendre and K G Subramanyan. Later in 1967, he received a French government scholarship to study etching under SW Hayeter and Krishna Reddy at Atelier 17, Paris.

Shah shared his days at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda with one of his contemporaries and renowned painter Gulammohammed Sheikh.

Remembering Shah as an "ebullient and jovial" person, Sheikh said he developed a "highly individualised approach" to sculpture.

"...changing the idea of making a human head in multiple ways with ingenious dexterity and creative spirit," Sheikh told PTI.

"At home with terracotta and bronze, he excelled in every medium he touched. Bit of a loner in his late life, he continued to work ceaselessly even when he reached his 90s," he added.

Shah had attended the opening of Sheikh's retrospective show, "Of World Within Worlds", at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) on February 5.

Shah's last exhibition, "Ninety and After: Excursions of a Free Imagination", was held at Anant Art Gallery in Delhi late last year, showcasing a selection of his sculptures and earlier drawings along with recent drawings created between 2020-2021.

In addition, it also features Himmat Shah's significant works from the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art collection, including sculptures, and archival content curated by the Asia Art Archive in India for the Anant Foundation for the Arts.

The gallery posted a tribute to the artist on its Instagram handle, remembering him as "a fiercely independent thinker who shaped a visual modernist vocabulary that was entirely unique".

"To have known Himmat Shah was to witness an artist devoted to his craft—relentless, playful, and always experimenting. Himmat Bhai was never shaped by expectation. Even with his place in Indian modernism, he remained entirely his own—creating on his own terms, right until the end. His absence is immeasurable, but his spirit lives on in his art," the gallery said.

KNMA presented three major exhibitions of his work, most notably his first comprehensive retrospective, "Hammer on the Square" (2016), celebrating his artistic journey.

The gallery said in a statement that Shah embraced the “emancipatory disposition of art” and developed a distinct visual language that "drew from local traditions while pushing the boundaries of form and medium".

"His prolific oeuvre—spanning drawings, burnt-paper collages, silver relief paintings, ceramics, and sculptures in terracotta and bronze—reflects both experimental rigour and poetic sensitivity," it said.