Vasudeo Kamath
A Mumbai painter known for life portraits of Presidents and painting series on the Buddha and Swaminarayan, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2025.
Vasudeo Kamath paints portraits from life and large series on historical and religious themes. In 2025 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of art, from Maharashtra [1].
Portraits
Kamath was born on 27 April 1956 in Karkala, Karnataka, and studied drawing and painting at Mumbai’s Sir J.J. School of Art, graduating with a gold medal [2]. He is known for his portraits from life, including of former Presidents Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee [2]. In 2006 he won the Draper Grand Prize of the Portrait Society of America [2].
Great narrative series
He painted a series on the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, and more than 100 paintings on the life of the Buddha at the Global Vipassana Pagoda in Mumbai were made under his direction [2]. He designed sculptures and panels at the Akshardham temple in Delhi, painted the Buddha’s life at a temple in Nara, Japan, and is drawing panels for the plinth of the Ram temple in Ayodhya [2].
He has held more than 25 solo exhibitions, written books on sketching and portraiture, and in 2014 started the Portrait Artist Group, which runs a yearly competition for young artists [2]. He received Madhya Pradesh’s Kalidas Samman in 2021 [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2025: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2025: citation for Vasudeo Kamath — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 12 October 2026.
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