Gulammohammed Sheikh’s printmaking retrospective opens at JNAF Mumbai

The Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF) at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai, unveils Gulammohammed Sheikh: Hand Prints | Mind Prints, a landmark retrospective dedicated to the artist’s seventy-year engagement with printmaking. Curated by artist and scholar Pushpamala N, the exhibition brings together over 150 works, including traditional woodcuts, linocuts, lithographs, etchings, silkscreens and digital montages, alongside Sheikh’s pioneering contributions to little magazines. This is the first time Sheikh’s printmaking practice is being presented in Mumbai on such a scale, offering audiences a comprehensive view of an important yet lesser-known dimension of his celebrated career as painter, poet, teacher and art historian.

Puja Vaish, Director at JNAF, expressed the institution’s pride in hosting this landmark show: “We are delighted to host Sheikhbhai's printmaking exhibition at the JNAF gallery. It has been his wish to showcase this body of work in Mumbai, and we are thrilled to bring it to the JNAF gallery. This expertly curated exhibition by fellow artist Pushpamala N. compiles a lifetime of Gulammohamed Sheikh's printmaking works.”

The exhibition is divided into two parts. The first, Hand Prints, brings together works created with traditional methods such as woodcut, lino, lithography, silkscreen and etching-aquatint. These works highlight Sheikh’s interest in printmaking as a democratic medium, extending into his involvement with little magazines. Early examples include Pragati, a handwritten and hand-painted literary magazine he produced in 1952 as a fifteen-year-old in Surendranagar, and later Kshitij and Vishwamanav, for which he illustrated and wrote poetry, fiction and art history articles. These engagements shaped his intellectual and artistic direction, culminating in the founding of Vrischik with Bhupen Khakhar in 1969, a publication that sought to foster critical dialogue among India’s cultural community. Sheikh’s innovations were striking: at one point he made 500 hand-collaged covers, and he experimented with new methods such as mounting linocuts on wood blocks for letterpress printing. These collaborative ventures underscore how he extended printmaking beyond the studio into the public sphere.

Pushpamala describes this phase, “In his 'Hand Prints' Sheikh was exploring the idea of the multiple, which is the essence of printmaking and the democracy associated with it, by extending it into the little magazines… Several artist friends worked together collaboratively on these, which was an important part of the practice.”

The second part, Mind Prints, turns to Sheikh’s embrace of digital technology from the early 2000s. Initially unconvinced when he was invited to a digital workshop in Baroda, he soon recognised the potential of the medium for quotation, montage and speed. Mining his archive and scanning images from books, he created layered compositions that he then enhanced with hand-painted details, ensuring each remained unique. His digital experiments went on to include an animated video and a vast mural with kinetic elements for the Mumbai airport. For Sheikh, the computer replaced the hands with the mind, opening new ways to compose and make images.

Pushpamala N emphasises, “While in his Hand Prints he extends the idea of the multiple, in his Mind Prints he makes the machine prints into unique works. Both Hand Prints and Mind Prints are archival and experimental in different ways.”

Curating such a wide-ranging practice required careful weaving of art, literature and politics. Sheikh’s lifelong involvement with Gujarati intellectual circles and his socially and politically engaged outlook shaped much of his work. Pushpamala recalls, “It was when I started grouping the works chronologically, or by technique or subject, that I saw patterns and started relating them to his life and the world outside. Sheikh is a protean figure… equally well known and influential as an artist, litterateur, art historian, organiser and publisher.”

For Mumbai audiences, the retrospective offers an unprecedented opportunity to experience Sheikh’s printmaking practice, from his earliest handwritten magazine to his most ambitious digital works. As Vaish observes, “This exhibition even goes back to the enterprising, entirely handwritten and handmade magazine ‘Pragati’ from his school years in 1952.”

Spanning seventy years of innovation and collaboration, Hand Prints | Mind Prints underscores Sheikh’s restless experimentation and intellectual breadth. His practice has continually embraced change while remaining rooted in community, history and dialogue. Much like his recurring motif of the Mappa Mundi, where figures from across geographies and eras converge, this exhibition brings together the many worlds Sheikh has inhabited and transformed through art.

Where: Jehangir Nicholson Gallery, Second Floor, East Wing, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, 159/161, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort, Mumbai 400023

Timings: 10.15 am - 6 pm 

Open on all days

Museum ticket applicable:  200 INR for Indian adults | 40 INR for children ( 5 - 15 yrs) 

The show is on from the 16th of September till the 27th of October 2025.

(Written by Esha Aphale)

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