Padamshri Tilak Gitai

Padma Shri by The President of India – 2017

Shilp Guru Award by The President of India – 2007 National Award by The President of India – 1982 International Crafts Award – 2019

 Born in 1949 Tilak Gitai hails from the second generation of royal court painter patronized by the rulers of Bikaner. He has done his B.F.A. from the University of Delhi. He specializes in Indian traditional Miniature paintings like Mughal, Rajasthani and Phadi paintings etc. He is also an all-round Master Craftsman.

Shri Tilak  has demonstrated cum exhibited his paintings in the prestigious “Festival of India” held at Augsburg Germany in1985, at Geneva-Zurich and Basel- Switzerland in 1987, at Earls Court-London in 2001, at Seoul-South Korea in 2004, at Muscat Festival-Oman in 2007 and at Sao Paulo-Brazil in 2012.

Shri Tilak has done a great research and works on the ancient “Ragamala” paintings and added with his own imagination and creativity the missing portions to these paintings without which, in essence, these paintings were incomplete. His one set of Ragamala paintings on Ivory is displayed at Muse’e d’enthnographie-Geneva.

His collections of paintings are also kept at Victoria Albert Museum-London; National Museum of Ethnology-Osaka Japan; National Crafts Museum-New Delhi. The US President Bill Clinton and

his daughter Chelsea Clinton also appreciated his work on Ragamala during their  visit  to  Jaipur  in  March  2000. His exhibitions on “Ragamala-The Missing Link” was exhibited at-

• Manoir de la Ville de Martigny-Switzerland – 1997
• Muse’e d’ethnographie de Gene’ve –1998
• Nehru Centre, London – 2009 with book launch of ‘Ragamala-The Missing Link’
• Tagore Centre, Indian Embassy, Berlin Germany – 2009 with book launch of ‘Ragamala-The Missing Link’

Shri Tilak makes paintings on different surfaces like old handmade paper, fine silk and wall Murals etc. and also restores the old miniature paintings. He makes his own colors  from  precious,  semi-precious  stones,  minerals and herbs. Real gold and silver colors are made from gold and silver leaf. He also makes his own brushes. He even trained many students the art and techniques of Indian Miniature  Painting  around  the globe.

During his illustrious career he got many prizes and awards for his originality and artistic brilliance like:

• Rajasthan Shiromani Award – 1991
• Kalamani Award –Suraj Kund-1991
• Maharana Sajjan Singh Award, Mewar Foundation Udaipur – 1993
• India’s Independence Golden Jubilee Award – 1997
• Federation of Rajasthan Handicrafts Exporters Award – 2007
• Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award – 2008
• Rajasthan Gaurav – 2009
• Maharaja Sawai Jagat Singh Award, City Palace Jaipur – 2013
• Rajasthan Hastshilp Ratan Award By Govt. of Rajasthan – 2018