Uttam Pacharne the Chairman of the 127-year-old Bombay Art Society (BAS) for three terms. (File)
President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday appointed Mumbai-based sculptor Uttam Pacharne the chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi.
Pacharne, who is a member of the advisory committees at Kala Academy, Goa, and PL Deshpande State Lalit Kala Academy, Maharashtra, received the National Lalit Kala Award in 1985. He was the Chairman of the 127-year-old Bombay Art Society (BAS) for three terms. President of BAS Vasudeo Kamath, said: “Pacharne is a noted name in the region. He works in mediums such as stone, bronze, clay and fibre, and is equally comfortable in making realistic as well as abstract sculptures.”
The 61-year-old’s notable works include several busts of Swami Vivekanand, Bhimrao Ambdkar, Veer Savarkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji that have been installed at various public places across India. Eight of his Shivaji statues have been installed in Maharashtra alone, while the Lucknow University campus also has a 13-foot statue of Shivaji created by Pacharne in 2016.
In 2006, he created a 13-foot bronze statue of Veer Savarkar at Borivali park, which has been dubbed to be the tallest statue of Savarkar in India. Last year, his statue of Deendayal Upadhayay was installed on the Gorakhpur University campus.
However, his most popular work is the Swatantra Jyot installation at the Andaman Cellular Jail, which became a bone of contention between the BJP and the UPA government in 2004 after Mani Shankar Aiyar, then Union petroleum minister, had got Savarkar’s quote removed from the plaque. BJP leader Ram Naik, who had commissioned the work in 2003, later pointed out later that by doing this, Aiyar violated the intellectual property rights of the sculptor.
Pacharne will hold office at the Akademi for three years from the date on which he assumes the charge of his office, a statement issued by the Ministry of Culture said. Currently on a tour outside India, he is expected to join the Lalit Kala Akademi office in Delhi on Monday.
In March, ML Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Akademies), Ministry of Culture, was appointed protem chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi.