Issued by India

Issued on Mar 14, 2023

Issued for : Department of Posts is pleased to jointly issue Commemorative Postage Stamp on ‘75 Years of India–Luxembourg Friendship’ which will further strengthen bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Credits :
Stamp/FDC/Brochure : Shri Anuj Zood
Cancellation Cachet : Mrs. Nenu Gupta

Type : Miniature Sheet, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 2500 Paise (2)

Souvenir Sheet Price : 5000 Paise

Souvenir Sheets Printed : 1.16 lakh

Printing Process : Wet Offset

Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad

About : 

• The diplomatic relations between India and Luxembourg were established in 1948. The two countries are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations during 2023. India and Luxembourg have traditionally enjoyed warm and friendly bilateral relations with cooperation extending to various multilateral and international forums. Amar Nath Sehgal, renowned sculptor, represents the strong bonds of friendship and cultural connect between India and Luxembourg. He is a unique symbol of the friendship between the two countries and has contributed significantly to the people-to-people ties. His birth centenary was commemorated during 2022. In recognition of his body of work which also personifies India-Luxembourg Friendship, the Postal Departments of two countries have come up with a Joint Issue to commemorate the occasion. The sculpture of artist Sehgal named ‘The Friends’ is an impressive & poignant work of art and a beautiful example of artist’s close relationship and friendship with Luxembourg. The sculpture ‘Flute Player’ is another remarkable work of art representing the spirit of Lord Krishna.
• Amar Nath Sehgal, renowned worldwide for his contribution to modern Indian art, was born in pre-partition India, in Campbellpur, on 5^th February 1922. He studied Industrial Chemistry at Banaras Hindu University and worked briefly as an engineer in Lahore. Following India’s Independence in 1947, he migrated to Delhi. His interest in art since childhood encouraged him to pursue art as a career and he moved to USA in 1948 to study art education at the New York University. On his return, he joined the College of Art, Delhi, as faculty.
• Amar Nath Sehgal’s oeuvre of works spanned over six decades of his life. His artistic versatility extends to sculptures, paintings, poetry, graphics and tapestries. In 1955, the artist was appointed by UNESCO to study and survey folk arts in India. He was awarded the Lalit Kala Academy Fellowship in 1993, the highest honour in Fine Arts conferred by the Government of India. He was bestowed Padma Bhushan by Government of India posthumously in 2008 for his outstanding contributions to the field of art.
• In 1979, Sehgal established a studio in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and for next 24 years, he lived between India and Luxembourg. In Luxembourg, Sehgal’s works are exhibited in the public collections of the National Museum of History and Art, the City of Luxembourg, the Central Bank of Luxembourg as well as in numerous private collections.
• In 1986, Sehgal founded “The Creative Fund” in Luxembourg in the presence of Prime Minister Jacques Santer, the objective of which was to help artists from the Grand Duchy and India to discover and be inspired by the rich history and culture of both countries. The Creative Fund became a unique exchange to help young and talented artists pursuing their passion in art.
• Sehgal’s iconic bronze bust of Mahatma Gandhi, commissioned by the philanthropist Henry Leir, was inaugurated in the Municipal Park in Luxembourg City in 1978 in the presence of the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gaston Thorn. In 1980, the bronze bust was stolen and the artist offered a copy of the original to the City of Luxembourg which was inaugurated on 2 October 1982, on the 113^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Today, it is a popular public sculpture, in the centre of the city, celebrated by the local community and the Indian diaspora as a reminder of the messenger of peace, Mahatma Gandhi, and his values of tolerance and non-violence.
• On the occasion of the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, on 2^nd October 2019, the Luxembourg Post & Telecommunications in cooperation with the Department of Posts – Philately of the Government of India released special commemorative stamp featuring Sehgal’s statue of the Mahatma.
• The sculpture Friends, in Bronze, is a unique piece of art created by Sehgal in 1988. The two bronze figures placed directly opposite each other signify not just two strong beings, but also resonates a sense of equality, respect and honour. The photograph of the artist with the work leaves a deep impact on every viewer as it relays the history of an Indian artist who moved alone to a distant country in search of inspiration. While India was his biggest inspiration, Luxembourg, with its warm people and welcoming environment, was like a home away from home. Luxembourg served as a catalyst between Sehgal’s creativity and his roots. The image here is a celebration of the bond of two nations with strong cultural values and historic ties brought together by one artist – Amar Nath Sehgal. The sculpture was loaned to the Embassy of The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, New Delhi in 2019.
• The sculpture Flute Player is a form to represent the spirit of Lord Krishna. The deity is worshipped across the Indian subcontinent as a supreme God. The source of Lord Krishna’s mythology comes from the Mahabharata and the very essence of the birth of the Bhagvad Gita. Lord Krishna’s personality is meant to be composite, wise yet youthful, strong yet tender, with an abundance of love. The flute he carried with him is a significant part of his personality. Some would derive it to be representative of the human heart and Lord Krishna the giver of love, filling the hollow flute as he plays it. The echoes of the music transpire as a medium of his showers of blessings. The bronze sculpture made in 1958 is an edition of 5, part of multiple private and public collections like the MOMA in Paris, and MNHA in Luxem-bourg, and was presented to UNICEF on behalf of the Children of India.
• Text : Referenced from content provided by Ministry of External Affairs.

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Issued by India

Issued on Mar 15, 1982

Issued for : Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department feels honoured to issue a commemorative stamp in honour of Pablo Picasso.

Description of Designs : The stamp depicts Picasso’s ‘Three Musicians‘ available at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. First day cover has been designed by K.K. Hebbar, and Cancellation by Charanjit Lal.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Yellow, Red, Blue and Black

Denomination : 285 Paisa

Overall size : 4.83 x 4.06 cms.

Printing size : 4.4 x 3.6 cms.

Perforation : 14 x 14

Paper : Unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 50

Printing process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

Name : Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso

Born on Oct 25, 1881 at Málaga, Spain 

Died on Apr 8, 1973 at Mougins, France

About : 

• Doubtless, Picasso was one of the greatest artists of all times. Like Leonardo-da-Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Rubens, he was a creator par excellence. He excelled as a pioneer not only in paintings, but also in sculptures, graphics, ceramics and in designing the stage decor. In one respect, Picasso was even unique in that “probably no painter in history has been so much written about – attacked and defended, explained and obscured, slandered and honoured by so many writers with so many words – at least during his life time“.
• Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain. After his initial training in Spain, he went to Paris. He showed his professional talents in the works usually painted during late 1901 to early 1904. This is commonly called the ‘Blue Period‘. During this period, more or less, he abandoned painting of the landscapes, street scenes, dance halls and flower pieces, etc. in order to concentrate only on the human figures. From 1905 onwards, a more natural style developed emphasising a kind of sweetness in the series of Circus people. His paintings began to reveal the ‘Classic‘ characteristics, more objective in feelings and full of freshness, repose and tranquility. In order to paint his new classic forms, Picasso usually used colours such as pinks and tans, at times, contrasting them with ochres and olives or pale blue which were often dominated by a reddish monochromatic effect. This effect was so obvious that this period i.e., between later part of 1905-1906, is usually called as the “Rose Period“.
• Along with George Braque, Picasso evolved “Cubism” and became its dominating force. Cubist artists broke up natural forms such as figures, draperies, landscapes and still life etc. into planes which are tilted, shifted and compressed into the limited defined space. The emphasis was on semi-abstract designs and other formal elements. From 1907 onwards, Cubism had at least three principal variations. First, “Analytical Cubism” which requires that, motivated by the spirit of analysis and investigation, the artist dissects natural forms, reducing them to semi-geometrical shapes. These are then again broken, dislocated or flattened into rectangular or semi-circular segments. Second, “Synthetic Cubism” which emphasizes the conceptual approach and a synthesis of the varying views of the object or their semblances on the picture plane, and also permits the use of arbitrary and varied texture, materials, colours and a free combination of quasi-geometric shapes – extremely remote in character from the original image. Third, ‘Curvilinear Cubism‘ according to which cubist or semi-cubist abstract pictures are produced through curves which along with other elements later paved the way for the ‘Convulsive’ and ‘Disquieting’ works, resembling certain elements of Surrealism.
• During the 1920s even when Picasso was involved in Cubism and was attracted toward certain manifestations of Surrealism, simultaneously he also painted in the “Neoclassical” style. Picasso also believed that, at times, an artist is also a “Political being” and a painting is not done merely to decorate the apartment but ‘is also an instrument of war for attack and defence against the enemy‘. This is amply demonstrated by his greatest master-piece “Guernica, 1937“.
• The painting “Three Musicians” done at Fontainebleau during the summer of 1921 is certainly the high point of Synthetic Cubism, at least among those which accentuate the rectilinear phase.
• (Text by courtesy Dr. L. P. Sihare).

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Issued by India

Issued on Jun 28, 1975

Issued for : The Posts & Telegraphs Department feels privileged to honour this great artist by issuing a commemorative stamp during 1975 when his 500^th birth anniversary is being observed.

Description of Design : The quadruple stamp shows two paintings done by Michelangelo on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel in Vatican. The picture in the upper half depicts the theme “The Creation of the Sun and Moon and the Plants” and the one in the lower half shows “The Creation of Man“.

Type : Se-tenant Quadruple Stamp,  Block of 4 forming two composite designs in horizontal pairs, Mint Condition

Colour : Multicolour

Denomination : 50 Paise each

Overall Size : 7.25 X 6.70 cms. [Quadruple stamp]

Printing Size : 7.25 X 6.70 cms. [Quadruple stamp]

Perforation : 14 x 14

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive coated stamp paper

Number Printed : 30,00,000

Number of stamps per issue Sheet : 72 (18 Blocks)

Printing Process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

Colour separation by : M/s Metal Printers Co., Bombay

Name : Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Born on Mar 6, 1475 at Caprese Michelangelo, Italy

Died on Feb 18, 1564 at Rome, Italy

About : 

• Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, engineer and poet, born in Florence in 1475, was one of the greatest artists of all times. Though he started as a sculptor, he excelled equally in the arts of painting and architecture with magnificent skill and prodigious originality. His masterpieces in painting and sculpture, inspired by theology and philosophy, are superb, aesthetic expressions through the medium of the human body. A striking attribute which distinguishes him from his great contemporaries, such as Raphael, was that, while they executed their commissions with the help of disciples and pupils, Michelangelo worked alone and unaided. Even the tremendous undertaking of the painting of the frescoes of entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome was accomplished by him single-handed. These intensely moving and awe-inspiring frescoes, as well as the final gigantic fresco of the Last Judgement undertaken by him when in his sixties, again single-handed, had unsurpassed and incalculable influence on the art of his contemporaries and successors over many centuries. Every later artist attempting heroic expression through the human body has been inspired by Michelangelo’s frescoes, such as the Pieta, David, Moses and the groups of statuary in the mausoleum of Lorenzo de Medici.
• During the last lonely years of his life, the long-pent emotions of fervour and tenderness in the heart of this solitary and stern man, found expression in beautiful poetry that calls to mind the sonnets of Shakespeare. 
• Michelangelo had an unconquerable heroic spirit for which he will ever command the admiration and respect of mankind. The total dedication of this supremely great artist to his work brings him close to the spiritual values held dear by thinkers of India and to the ideals of her ancient civilization.

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