Google doodle celebrates the 91st birthday of Lancelot Ribeiro, an Indian-born Expressionist painter

Lancelot Ribeiro, an Expressionist painter who was born in India and is renowned for his innovative use of materials, is being honored on his 91st birthday with this Doodle. His artworks, which were known for their experimental use of media, covered a wide range of styles throughout the course of a six-decade career.

Ribeiro was born in Bombay, India, on this day in 1933, but his ancestry was from Goa. After studying accounting in England for the first time in 1950, Riberiro’s creative talents started to take shape. He experimented with jewelry design, wrote poetry, and studied life drawing at Saint Martin’s School of Art. After joining the Royal Air Force and obtaining compassionate leave, he returned to India in 1955 and started a career in life insurance. His move into painting was accidental.

In 1961, he received commissions and attention after his first solo exhibition at the Bombay Artist Aid Centre sold out a month before it opened. He had 10 shows by the time he moved to Britain in 1962, one of which went on tour in Europe and North America.

His early works featured still lifes, figures, and townscapes, many of which were influenced by his Goan ancestry. These were mostly oil paintings, but he soon looked for new types of polyvinyl acetate, or PVA, and colored it to create his paints, which were an early version of acrylic paints. His work was drastically changed by the quicker drying times and more vivid color possibilities.

In 1963, Ribeiro was a co-founder of the Indian Artists’ Collectives movement, which lasted for 25 years. Additionally, he was giving lectures for the Commonwealth Institute on Indian art and culture as well as his own artistic activity.

In India, the UK, Paris, Germany, and the US, Ribeiro had about 70 solo and group exhibitions during his career.

Undoubtedly, his contributions to the art scene as a technical innovation cleared the path for upcoming artistic generations.

Happy birthday, Lancelot Ribeiro