Born in Punjab in 1923, Bal Chhabda was an artist and filmmaker. After making the movie Do Raha in the 1950s, Chhabda joined the Bhulabhai Desai Institute in Mumbai where he interacted with several people in the arts including M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, V.S. Gaitonde and S.H. Raza. He began painting in 1958 and was also a prominent associate of the Progressive Artists’ Group formed in 1947. He founded Gallery 59 in Mumbai, which served as a significant hub for the members of the PAG to exhibit their work collectively.

Bal Chhabda participated in several prestigious group exhibitions in India and internationally including the Salon de la Jeune Peinteure, Paris, and the Tokyo Biennale in 1960. He received the Governor's award at the Tokyo Biennale in 1961. He also received the Lalit Kala Akademi Award in 1965, and later a Rockefeller Fund Fellowship to travel and work in the USA. He also participated in the exhibition, Seven Indian Painters, at Gallerie Le Monde de Art, Paris, in 1994, and was selected to show at an exhibition of contemporary art of the east and west held at the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1969.

Bal Chhabda passed away in 2013.

ESSAYS

Bal Chhabda (1923-2013)

by Karin Zitzewitz

A fun-loving and personable mainstay of the Bombay art world, Bal Chhabda told a tight story of his life as a filmmaker, art gallerist and collector, and artist. The story hinged upon the contrast between the central role he played in the art world as an intimate friend to artists who emerged in the

Bal Chhabda

Bal Chhabda (1923-2013)

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