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He
had his schooling upto the Middle Standard in the Government High
School, in 1929 he joined the Art Company of S. Hari Singh and in
1931 after visiting Delhi and Bombay, he reached the port of
Calcutta, where he joined his father in their business in Bazaar
Sodhian. In 1932 he made a portrait of S. Jassa Singh Ramgarhia,
which fetched him a first prize at the Ramgarhia Federation
Conference at Kharagpur. The portrait is sold in thousands was very
well acclaimed by the public. He bagged gold medals and high awards
at exhibitions held at
Calcutta, Kharagpur,
Bombay, Trivandrum,
and Delhi etc.
When father of S. Sohan Singh retired
from the
Golden Temple, both father and son started painting religious
themes, preparing charts for students as well as framing pictures.
S.Sohan Singh got an opportunity of gaining proficiency in the block
line. He passed this technique to his elder son S. Surinder Singh
Saggu,
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Sohan Singh is a very mild natured man and a very humble person.
Since 1931 Sohan
Singh tackled multifarious subjects in the Art field e.g. Calendar
designs, Oil and Water colour paintings, Commercial Labels, Book Jackets
designs, subject illustrations designs, Newspaper Adv. Designs apart from
very fine themes in the old Kangra Style, Pahari and Mughal Styles,
Landscape painting, Indian Monuments, Portraits and Imaginative subjects.
His designs of calendars, labels and posters are
a masterpiece, unequalled by any other artist.
His art can be seen like Preet Lari, Ajit, and
many other popular periodicals of that era.
An exceptional painting of
Guru Nanak was bought by nearly 500 Americans, who were very
much impressed with the artist's flare of the brush. S. Sawarn
Singh, the Home Minister, presented S. Sohan Singh, with a 'Saropa'
at the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Company Bagh at
Amritsar in
a ceremony inaugurated by the SGPC. |
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He has in his credit dozens of gold and silver medals, cash
prizes as well as commendation certificates as won by him in a
number of Art Exhibitions held from time to time through out the
Country. For a number of years, he continued as a member and a life
member of governing body of The Indian Academy of Fine Arts and
acted as a judge for the grant of awards on selected exhibits.
At
Chandigarh in 1970 he was acclaimed the Master Artist of the year,
and the same year at Ludhiana he received a prestigious award from
the Ramgarhia Silver Jubilee Conference.
His studio at the 27-Braham Buta Market, Amritsar is a shrine for
young and upcoming artists Art students, who want to obtain degrees
in art, have been flocking at his studio to obtain special knowledge
on art. In his family possession, there is an old manuscript with
pictures of the Sikh era, from which S. Sohan Singh made the
spectacular painting of Maharaja Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, which now
hangs at the
Amritsar
Central
Sikh
Museum.
S. Sohan Singh married to Smt Satwant
Kaur Dhanjal. The couple is blessed with three sons and two
daughters. His eldest son S. Surinder Singh Saggu was a Block
Engineer and Graphic Artist, his youngest son S. Satpal Singh Saggu
“Danish” follows in the footsteps of his father in the Art line. The
third generation-his grandsons are S. Harpreet Pal Singh Saggu (M.Com)
and S. Hardeep Singh Saggu (M.Sc.) have been preserving his Artwork
and running the website www.art-heritage.com. 3rd son S.
Jaspal Singh Saggu was a electrician at Guru Ram Dass dental
college.. S. Sohan Singh has published the following books:
(1) Gian Chitravali
(2) Amritsar
- The Sacred City of the Sikhs (on the Gurudwaras and
Temples
of Amritsar)
(3) Holy Places of Pilgrimage (also on the Gurudwaras)
(4) Revealing the Art of G.S. Sohan Singh
This
great ramgarhia artist breathed his last after a short illness on 19
Feb. 1999 at the age of 85. |
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