Richard Bartholomew - THE ART CRITIC

An insider's account of the birth of Modern Indian Art

BIO
Richard Bartholomew Biography Bibliography

RICHARD BARTHOLOMEW Art Critic, Photographer, Poet, Painter. (1926-1985)

Richard Bartholomew escaped from Burma around the time of the Japanese invasion during the Second World War and made New Delhi his home. Here, he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English Literature after which he began his career as a full-time art critic writing for various newspapers, journals and magazines. His creative writing includes poems and short stories which were published frequently in journals like Thought and the Illustrated Weekly. As a painter, he held one-man shows in New Delhi and Bombay in the 50s and 60s. As a photographer, he recorded life around him including his family and artist friends. “A Critic’s Eye”, a selection of his photographs, was exhibited at Sepia Gallery, New York in 2008, at Photoink, New Delhi, in January 2009, at the Harrington Street Arts Centre, Kolkata, in 2010 and at Fishbar Gallery, London, in 2011.

Biography

1926 Born, 29th November in Tavoy, Burma 1930 Schooled at St Paul’s, Rangoon, Burma 1942 Fled to India during the Japanese occupation of Burma 1948 B.A. (English), St Stephen’s College, New Delhi 1950 M.A. (English), St Stephen’s College, New Delhi 1951-1958 Teacher, Modern School, New Delhi 1953 Married Rati Batra 1958-1960 Assistant Editor, Thought, New Delhi 1958-1962 Art Critic, Indian Express, New Delhi 1955-1960 Art Critic, Thought, New New Delhi 1962 onwards Art Critic, Times of India, New Delhi 1960-1963 Director, Kunika Art Centre, New Delhi 1966-1973 Curator of the first museum of Tibetan Art, Tibet House, New Delhi 1970-1971 Senior Fellowship, John D Rockefeller III Fund, New York 1977-1985 Secretary, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1982 Commissioner, Contemporary Indian Art, Festival of India, Great Britain 1984 Invited by the Japan Foundation to meet artists in Japan 1985 Died, 11th January in New Delhi

Bibliography

1971 Husain, Harry N Abrams, New York (co-author) 1972 The Story of Siddhartha’s Release (Poems), Writers Workshop, India 1973 Poems, Writers Workshop, India 1974 Krishna Reddy (Contemporary Indian Art series), Lalit Kala Akademi, India 1986 The Cycle (sonnets), Writers Workshop, India