Pablo Bartholomew

16/01/2026

16/01/2026

Starting up!

29/11/2025

Today!~ Richard Bartholomew at 99.
You have been horrified by what AI could do and write. So here is a taste of the first few lines of a long, AI-written la la la.

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Richard Bartholomew (1926–1985) was an immensely important figure in the Indian Modern Art period, primarily for his work as a highly influential art critic, writer, curator, and institutional builder in post-Independence India. He was not just an observer but an active participant and nurturer of the nascent Modernist movement.
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I remember, to make pocket money, I would take a bus and drop off your reviews at the newspaper office. And sometimes open up the envelope to read. Type-written on an A4 page and no more, always short and concise, cutting through the noise to get to the core issues, critiqued and explained simply for everyone to understand.

📷 © Pablo Bartholomew / All Rights Reserved.

15/08/2025

A Tricolour girl makes a dash!
Today, 15 August 2025, is India's 79th Independence Day.

📷 © Pablo Bartholomew / All Rights Reserved.

26/07/2025

Remembering the painter Tyeb Mehta, whose 100th birthday is today!
b.26 July 1925 d. 02 July 2009

65 years ago, Tyeb Mehta (left), at his exhibition at Shridharani Art Gallery, was talking to Rati Bartholomew. In the background is Mrs. Shridharani, who ran the Triveni Kala Sangam, which houses galleries and teaches dance and music, New Delhi, c. 1960

And extract from a review by .art
"...it is clear that Tyeb Mehta is a considerable
painter. His contribution to contemporary Indian painting is clarity and integrity. His painting is neither figurative only nor is it abstract only, whatever these categories mean.
His painting is both, and I think that he wants these two worlds or categories fully represented in his work."

📷 © Richard Bartholomew/ The Estate of Richard Bartholomew/ All Rights Reserved.

16/07/2025

Fondly remembered on his 100th birthday! Artist Krishna Reddy. 1925 – 2018. Master printmaker, Sculptor and a fine teacher.

In 2015, sitting in the back garden of his daughter Apu's home in Brooklyn.

What a life! From Andhra Pradesh to Shantiniketan, Madras, London, Paris and New York. And the various intersections of our families over decades....

Always gentle, kind and hospitable, your NY loft, a refuge to stay or hang out!

Many of the photographs taken by .art and me of Judy and you in Delhi, New York & Paris are memories to hold on to and remain embedded...

📷 © Pablo Bartholomew / All Rights Reserved.

#1925

04/06/2025

After Salgado's passing, when Sidharth Bhatia noticed my Instagram feed and suggested I write about him, I reluctantly agreed. I didn't realise how much of a fanboy I really was until I went down memory lane!

A personal tribute by an Indian photographer and admirer who saw him work closely in Rajasthan.

12/05/2025

Mother’s Day
Remembering Rati Bartholomew
(January 4, 1927 – September 23, 2021)

Rati reading Thought, c. 1958,

📷 © Richard Bartholomew / All Rights Reservedart

2025 is the year to examine the archives of writings and theatre work that she relentlessly pursued within India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, where she had friends and family.

Rati contributed to the Arts and Politics journal THOUGHT, published from Dayaganj, Delhi, in the 1950s and 1960s during the post-independence golden age of magazine culture from the 1950s to the 1970s. Poetry and fiction writers discovered an audience and acclaim in English and Hindi periodicals and journals, while critics argued over aesthetics and ideology.

More about her as her past student Aruna Roy recounts.
https://thewire.in/the-arts/remembering-rati-bartholomew-aruna-roy

See the full article in the bio