Art

A Surgeon's Encore: The Art of Shivdev Singh

by SANGEETA KAUR LUTHRA

 

I grew up listening to my father's stories about his classmates from the first graduating class (1958) of the Government Medical College, Patiala. These stories were filled with anecdotes of hard work, camaraderie, practical jokes, and even sparks of artistic inspiration.

One of those classmates and a life-long friend, Dr. Shivdev Singh or "Shivdev Uncle" to me, showed signs of artistic promise even then in sketches he drew of the human anatomy.

According to my father, all the students were required to produces sketches of the human anatomy as part of their training, but Shivdev Singh's stood out. Many of his sketches are still on display in the Department of Anatomy in the medical college.

My own memories of Shivdev Uncle's artistry are in the beautiful cards he designed for both of his children's wedding festivities. These were vibrant depictions of Punjabi folk life and the traditions surrounding marriage. In particular, the colours and movement of the Punjabi dresses and dances jumped out from the paintings and really were an invitation to join the festivities.

But his journey to the creation of these and other beautiful images is a long and interesting one.

Shivdev Singh was born in the town of Nabha, Punjab and eventually immigrated to the United States in the 1970's. After a long and successful career in pediatric and neo-natal surgery, which began in the Medical College of Patiala and eventually led to tenures at Harvard University, Boston Children's Hospital and the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, he embarked on a new path as a visual artist, and he did so with the same zeal and intensity that had shaped his first career.

He will see the fulfillment of his second vocation on display this December at the India Habitat Center in New Delhi.

Shivdev Singh has completed formal training in a number of different art institutes in California, and began to exhibit his work in 1997 in Lancaster, California, and then again in 2001 at the Art Folio Gallery, Sector 9, Chandigarh.

During this time, he also sponsored a number of programs at Punjabi University, Patiala, which were designed to encourage and support the performance and preservation of various folk art and musical traditions of the Punjab.

The viewer of Shivdev Singh's repertoire will be struck by the immediacy and subtlety of his work. Over the years his collections have explored a number of themes and reflect his position as a truly global citizen.

Past themes have included Punjabi folk and village life; wildlife and vistas of East African safari; vistas of Europe and North America; and the stark but breathtaking mountains and deserts of his southern California home.

More recently Singh has also focused on the human form.

By employing various media and techniques, including watercolour, oils, and charcoal sketching, Shivdev Singh is able to represent these social and natural spaces as dynamic and multi-layered. The skills of an experienced surgeon have translated well onto the artist's canvas.

Prof. Patricia Crosby Hinds of Antelope Valley College had the following to say about Shivdev Singh's work:

"Shivdev is an outstanding, accomplished artist of note whose expressions exhibit his inquiry and ability to achieve a high level of execution for the subject chosen. The controlled use of detail is exceptional and his process of being sensitive to line economy is extraordinary especially with charcoal portraits reminiscent of western old world masters. This quality of detail is pervasive in all his works and shows a level of mastery few artists achieve in their body of works."

‘Hard work', ‘frugal living', and ‘education' are the tenets of most immigrants. Sikh immigrants, in particular, are known for their drive and single-minded focus on professional and financial success. As a result, we have tended to overlook aspects of our lives that seem peripheral to that initial journey of survival.

This has often meant a neglect of creative fields like art and literature by many in our community. Fortunately, Shivdev has been one of the exceptions to this rule.

At the heart of his work and his personal story is the experience of the diaspora - a creative and sometimes difficult melding of the traditions of his ancestral land with the sensibilities of a new home and country.

In his own words, Shivdev Singh was spurred on first and foremost by "a fascination with the individual pursuit of physical and intellectual potential, and am grateful to have had the opportunities and desire to follow such pursuits."

　

November 17, 2009

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