Artist      

A pioneer potter, Primula Pandit studied Painting at the J J School of Art, Mumbai. Her interest in pottery led her to Gurcharan Singh with whom she worked in the 1950s and made her own kiln with the help of Abdullah from Delhi Blue. She also worked with Bernard Leach in UK (1958), learnt from Maja Grotteli at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, USA (1960s), and in Keschkemet and Siklos, Hungary which is a trend-setter in studio pottery The Ceramic Millennium in Amsterdam has also influenced her work greatly. Her work won Silver Medal at the Mumbai Arts Show in the 1980s and she also won the Silver Medal at Vallories Biennale, France, in the 1970s. As the founder-member of ISPA (Indian Studio Potters Association), she helped organize national and international workshops and in 1994 ISPA held its first international symposium on the theme of Peace and Harmony. In recent years she has worked with potters like David Frith (Firth?), Sandy Brown, Dauphine Scalbert and at the Bruckner Foundation Studios, Carouge, France (or USA?). She has also worked on murals and her work is featured in the film Earth I Am by Bhagwan D. Garga. She has evolved a method of working with clay called Yoga of Clay as she considers clay a therapeutic medium and conducted workshops on this all over the world.

It is with a sense of great shock Lemongrasshopper Gallery informs its artist-friends, art-lovers and patrons of the unexpected and untimely passing away of ceramist Primula Pandit in early 2009. We had featured her work in our Contemporary Ceramics Today exhibition in 2007-08. We pray that her soul rests in peace.