MD. TARIQUL ISLAM at 09:33, 14 April 2026

2026-04-14T09:33:49Z

New page

{{Short description|British painter (1933–2010)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Lancelot Ribeiro
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Lancelot Ribeiro.png
| image_size =
| alt =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| birth_name = Lanceloté José Belarmino Ribeiro
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1933|11|28}}
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2010|12|25|1933|11|28}}
| death_place = [[London]], UK
| resting_place = Ernest George Columbarium, [[Golders Green Crematorium]], London NW11 7NL
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| education = St Xavier's High School for Boys, Bombay (1939–1942)
St Mary's Senior Cambridge School, Mount Abu, Rajputana (1944–1950)
| alma_mater =
| known_for = Paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, poetry, critical writings, Founder member of the Indian Painters Collective, UK (1963) and IAUK (1978/79)
| notable_works = The Warlord (1966), King Lear (1964), Stricken Monk (1968)
| style = Expressionist painting, Acrylics
| movement = Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism
| spouse = {{marriage|Ana Rita Pinto Correia|1960}}
| children = 2
| awards = Awarded a grant from the Congrés pour la Liberté de la Culture [Congress for Cultural Freedom], Paris in 1962. Nominated for All India Gold Medal (c.1961).
| elected =
| patrons = Dr Homi Bhabha, TATA Group, Prof. [[Patrick Boylan]] (New Walk Museum & Art Galleries), Amb. Salman Haidar Former Foreign Secretary
| memorials =
| website =
| module =
| relatives = [[F. N. Souza]] (half-brother)
}}

'''Lanceloté José Belarmino Ribeiro''' (28 November 1933 – 25 December 2010) was an [[Expressionist]] painter, best known for his experiments with polyvinyl acetate and oil paints, the forerunner of modern acrylic paints. According to ''[[The Independent]]'', he is considered to have been at "the vanguard of the influx of Indian artists to Britain."<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011">{{Citation |last=Buckman |first=David |title=Lancelot Ribeiro: Artist in the vanguard of the influx of Indian artists to Britain |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=3 April 2011 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lancelot-ribeiro-artist-in-the-vanguard-of-the-influx-of-indian-artists-to-britain-2261209.html |access-date=11 March 2017}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Lanceloté José Belarmino Ribeiro was born in [[Bombay]], [[British India]] (now Mumbai, India) on 28 November 1933 to [[Goan Catholic]] parents, accountant João José Fernando Flores Ribeiro and his dressmaker wife Lilia Maria Cecilia de Souza (née Antunes). He was the half-brother of artist [[F. N. Souza]] through Lilia, who married João after F. N. Souza's father died. Ribeiro moved to London in 1950, living with his brother while studying accountancy. He abandoned his career as an accountant when he attended classes at [[St. Martin's School of Art]] between 1951 and 1953. He served in the [[Royal Air Force]] at [[RAF Dumfries|Dumfries]] in Scotland, then returned to Bombay. After working with [[Life Insurance Corporation]], he began working professionally as a painter in 1958.<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/>

=== Childhood and school years (1933–1949) ===
Ribeiro’s father João José Fernando Flores Ribeiro (1902–1988) was a chartered accountant and his mother Lília Maria Cecília Ribeiro (née Antunes) (1901–1987) a milliner and tailor. She had lost her first husband at twenty-three, and then what would have been Ribeiro’s half-sister, Zemira, aged two and a half to [[diphtheria]]. His older half-brother, the artist [[F. N. Souza]] (1924–2004), contracted the deadly [[smallpox]] virus at 3 months of age but survived. It was in January 1933 that Lily remarried and Lancelot Ribeiro (christened Lanceloté José Belarmino Ribeiro) was born on 28 November 1933 in Bombay (now Mumbai), followed by a sister, Marina Ribeiro (1935–2015), two years later.

The Bombay of Ribeiro’s childhood was lively and cosmopolitan, and still under the British Empire. It was a thriving centre for the arts, culture and sciences, which inevitably shaped his wide-ranging interests. The family home in Hira Building overlooked Bombay’s famous Crawford Market. The Ribeiros ancestral roots were from Azossim, a village in the district of Ilhas (now Tiswadi) in Old Goa. Although Goa was part of the Indian subcontinent, its customs and traditions had been shaped by the Portuguese 400-year colonial presence, which had brought the Roman Catholic faith there. The visual beauty of this landscape influenced Ribeiro’s early work.

==Life in India==
His debut exhibition in Bombay’s Artist Aid Centre in 1961 was an instant sell-out and launched his career as a painter. It won him a commission from Tata Industries to paint a 12-foot mural for the chairman and chief executive of [[Tata Iron and Steel]], [[J. R. D. Tata|J.R.D. Tata]] and interest from other corporate collectors. This included the trio of Jewish émigrés who had helped develop India’s nascent modern art scene – Rudi von Leyden, Walter Langhammer and Emanuel Schlesinger, who had escaped Europe’s [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2023-06-13 |title=Lancelot Riberio: An artist that gave rise to expressionism in Indian |url=https://abirpothi.com/lancelot-riberio-an-artist-that-gave-rise-to-expressionism-in-indian/ |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Abirpothi |language=en-US}}</ref>

Ribeiro’s output over six decades of work was wide-ranging and experimental in medium, style, and form. His experimentation with [[polyvinyl acetate]] (PVA) positioned him as “a godfather to generations of artists using acrylics as an alternative to oils” (The Times, 2011).<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-06-26 |title=Lance Ribeiro |newspaper=[[The Times]] |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/lance-ribeiro-xrl5d7ggpp3 |access-date=2023-06-27 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>

With fellow painters, he co-founded the Indian Painters Collective, UK (IPC) in 1963, the first informal body of its kind outside of [[India]]. Over its 25-year history, the IPC advocated for better representation of artists from the subcontinent, eventually evolving into Indian Artists UK (IAUK) in 1978/79.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Art UK – The Roots of the Indian Artists' Collectives |url=https://www.grosvenorgallery.com/news/58-art-uk-the-roots-of-the-indian/ |access-date=2023-06-27 |website=Grosvenor Gallery |language=en}}</ref>

==Influence and critical reception==
''[[The Independent]]'' placed Ribeiro at "the vanguard of the influx of Indian artists to Britain."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-04-03 |title=Lancelot Ribeiro: Artist in the vanguard of the influx of Indian |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lancelot-ribeiro-artist-in-the-vanguard-of-the-influx-of-indian-artists-to-britain-2261209.html |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> He rebelled against fashions, fiercely critical of those he saw as following the mainstream. In 1972, describing his own artistic practice for the Commonwealth Institute, he reflected on the impulses which drove his work, a sentiment that could equally be used to convey a lifelong philosophy: “I could go on endlessly to produce painting after painting – interesting perhaps – but somewhat meaningless and self-plagiarizing.”<ref>Ribeiro, 1972 Commonwealth Institute lecture https://www.lancelotribeiro.com/the-artist/experimentation</ref>

==Career==
Ribeiro's creative life spanned half a century, during which time he became known for a "huge body"<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> of figurative and abstract work.<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> From 1951 until 1953, he joined art classes at Saint Martin's School of Art, [[London]].<ref name="VonWeigand">{{cite web|last1=Von Weigand|first1=Ellen|title=Lancelot Ribeiro: Vanguard Indian Painter of Post War Britain|url=https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/lancelot-ribeiro-vanguard-indian-painter-of-post-war-britain/|website=TheCultureTrip.com|publisher=The Culture Trip|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807075824/https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/lancelot-ribeiro-vanguard-indian-painter-of-post-war-britain/|archive-date=7 August 2013}}</ref> In 1958, he began painting professionally.<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> 1960 saw him organize his first solo exhibition, Bombay Art Society Salon.<ref name="VonWeigand" /> It was soon sold out. Five other exhibitions followed this in [[Bombay]] ([[Mumbai]]), [[New Delhi]] and [[Calcutta]] ([[Kolkata]]).<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> 1961 saw his first solo art exhibition at the Bombay Artist Aid Centre. It was included among the Ten Indian Painters exhibition., and was given an extensive tour of India, Europe, US and Canada. He also received a commission for a 12-foot mural for the [[Tata Iron and Steel Company]].<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/>

He returned to London with his wife in 1962. There he received a grant from the [[Congress for Cultural Freedom]] in [[Paris]]. He held mixed shows at the [[Piccadilly Gallery|Piccadilly]], Rawinski, [[John Whibley Gallery|John Whibley]] and Crane Kalman galleries in London and also at the [[Yvon Lambert Gallery]] in [[Paris]]. He received an All India Gold Medal nomination.<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> 1963 saw him co-found the Indian Painters’ Collective.<ref name="VonWeigand" /> In the 1960s and 1970s he held both solo and group shows. Ribeiro lectured on Indian art and culture at the [[Commonwealth Institute]].<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/>

A retrospective covering his 1960s work was held in 1986 at [[Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery]].<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/>
In 1987 his work was displayed at [[Camden Arts Centre]].<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> In 1998, his work was displayed at [[LTG Gallery]], [[New Delhi]].<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> He displayed one painting at [[British Art Fair]], 2010 after a long absence.<ref name="LanceRib">{{cite web|title=Ribeiro: The Artist|url=http://lanceribeiro.co.uk/background.htm|website=lanceribeiro.co.uk|access-date=11 March 2017}}</ref> Ribeiro died in 2010 in London.<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/>

In 2013 there was a retrospective exhibition at Asia House, [[London]] in May–June.<ref name="VonWeigand" /> An exhibition was scheduled for [[New Delhi]] in November.<ref name="VonWeigand" /> In November 2016, as part of the 2017 UK-India Year of Culture, the exhibition ''Ribeiro: A Celebration of Life, Love and Passion'' was held in association with the [[British Museum]] and other institutions.<ref name="British_Museum_2016">{{Citation |title=Remembering Lancelot Ribeiro and other Indian artists in 1960s Britain |publisher=[[British Museum]] |date=2016 |url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/event_detail.aspx?eventId=3350&title=Remembering%20Lancelot%20Ribeiro%20and%20other%20Indian%20artists%20in%201960s%20Britain&eventType=Special%20event |access-date=11 March 2017}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Ribeiro died in [[London]] on 25 December 2010, aged 77. He left an artistic legacy of artwork as well as extensive critical and poetic writings. His creative life spanned half a century, and he left what has been described as a "huge body" of figurative and abstract work.<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/> Among his artistic productions were portrait heads, [[still life]]s, landscapes, and pigment experiments dating back to the early 1960s which "lead to works of peculiar brilliance and transparency".<ref name="Independent_Flux_2011"/>

It has been suggested that Ribeiro had a hand in completing some of his brother Souza's art works. Ellen Von Weigand wrote that "Souza's success and resulting social life meant that he frequently left works unfinished. Ribeiro would complete them, using the painter's harsh, aggressive strokes to form his church spires, iconographic heads and anti-naturalistic still-lives. His brother would then return to add his hasty signature to the finished piece."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/lancelot-ribeiro-vanguard-indian-painter-of-post-war-britain/|title=Lancelot Ribeiro: Vanguard Indian Painter of Post War Britain|first=Ellen Von|last=Weigand|publisher=}}</ref>

On 28 November 2024, Google celebrated his 91st birthday with a [[Google Doodle]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 November 2024 |title=Celebrating Lancelot Ribeiro Doodle |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/celebrating-lancelot-ribeiro/ |access-date=2024-11-28 |website=Google |language=en}}</ref>

===Role of acrylics===
In a longish obituary, ''The Times'' of [[London]] acknowledges Ribeiro's role as an "acclaimed Indian artist who pioneered the use of acrylics in the 1960s, producing a brilliancy of color in his expressionistic works".<ref name="TimesObit">{{cite news|title=Lance Ribeiro|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/lance-ribeiro-xrl5d7ggpp3|newspaper=The Times|access-date=11 March 2017|date=2011-01-24}}</ref> The paper talks of Ribeiro's "increasing impatience" by the 1960s over the time it took for oils to dry, as also its "lack of brilliance in its color potential." He took to the new synthetic plastic bases that commercial paints were beginning to use, and soon got help from manufacturers like [[Imperial Chemical Industries|ICI]], [[Courtaulds]] and [[Geigy]]. The companies supplied him samples of their latest paints in quantities that he was using three decades later, according to the paper. Initially, the firms thought the PVA compounds would not be needed in commercially viable quantities. But they quickly recognized the potential demand and "so Ribeiro became the godfather of generations of artists using acrylics as an alternative to oils."<ref name="TimesObit" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/lance-ribeiro-xrl5d7ggpp3 Lance Ribeiro, in ''The Times'' of London]
* [http://grosvenorgallery.com/artists/31-lancelot-ribeiro/overview/ Grosvenor Gallery: Lancelot Ribeiro]
* [https://artuk.org/discover/stories/lancelot-ribeiro-artist-in-india-and-europe Lancelot Ribeiro: artist in India and Europe | Art UK]

==External links==
{{Commons}}
* [https://www.lancelotribeiro.com/ Personal site]
* [http://www.artnet.com/artists/lance-ribeiro/past-auction-results Lance Ribeiro, on Artnet.com]
* [https://www.grosvenorgallery.com/artists/31-lancelot-ribeiro/overview/ Lancelot Ribeiro – Overview | Grosvenor Gallery]
* [https://benuri.org/artists/501-lancelot-ribeiro/overview/ Lancelot Ribeiro – Overview | Ben Uri Gallery and Museum]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribeiro, Lancelot}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian male painters]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian painters]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to England]]
[[Category:British male painters]]
[[Category:20th-century British painters]]
[[Category:Artists from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force airmen]]
[[Category:Goan Catholics]]
[[Category:British people of Goan descent]]
[[Category:20th-century British male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male artists]]

Lancelot Ribeiro - Revision history

MD. TARIQUL ISLAM at 09:33, 14 April 2026