(1909 - 1981)

Janardhan Dattareya Gondhalekar was born in 1909 in Amraovati in Maharashtra. After receiving his Diploma in Drawing and Painting from the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai, In England he studied techniques and skills at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and at the Academie Julian in Paris. He also studied methods to restore paintings and art obiects at the Laboratoria Centrale des Musees de Belgique in Belguim under a Fellowship bestowed on him by the UNESCO in 1950.

Shri. J. D. Gondhalekar was efficient educator, administrator and cultural visionary. Recipient of several prestigious awards, this artist continued painting throughout his career. He wrote and broadcast widely on art and he participated in art exhibitions both nationally and internationally in countries includes Belgium, Germany, England and Latin America. He was the Art Director of the Times of India, The Dean of the Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai and The Art Director of several films.

The strength of Gondhalekar's paintings lies in his capacity to pull together the formal techniques of European art practice and bind them with the mythic imagination of his indigenous environment. A whole array of sketches, nude figure drawings oils, water colours and works in gouache highlight his virtuosity as a painter. The Hanuman series done in a modernized version of the illustrations of an illuminated manuscript are rendered in gouache. The controlled compositional weights and balances and the striking use of colour and the detailing of line, volume, form and structure bring to mind the formal training he had in Europe. He handled both European and Indian themes.

 

• 1909

• 1950 : Under the Unsesco - Belgium Fellowship. Studied methods for restoration of Paintings and Art objects at Director of Laboratoira Centrale des Musees de Belgique, Brussels.
• 1939, 1937 : Wood Engraving, Etching & Allied intagalio process were studied at Central School of Arts & Crafts, London
• 1938 : Mural Decoration at the Academic Julian, Paris
• 1931 : Government Diploma in Drawing & Painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay
• Studied Decorative Painting under Mr. Poluninal at the Slade School of Art, London
• Diploma in Fine Art - The Slade School of Fine Art, University of London

• Worked on several advisory committees
• Reorganistion of the Lucknow School of Art
• Saving and reconstructing of the archaeological finds at Nagarjunsagar, Narjunakonda
• To select the site and form for the memorial Hun-en-tsant to be built at Nalanda, Government of India
• Gen. Council member and Lalit Senate member University of Bombay
• Organized the State Art Exhibition, Government of Bombay
• Several Articles on Art matters in English and Vernacular languages