PRITHPAL LADI- b.1955 A science graduate, Ladi was on his way to join the J.J. School of Art, in Mumbai, but instead enrolled at the Faculty of Fine Arts, at the M.S. University in Baroda. Ladi graduated with distinction in sculpture from the M.S. University in 1980. A year later, in 1981 he won the National Lalit Kala Akademie award as well as a Merit Certificate of All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society. Following a French Government scholarship, a few years later, he went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. On his return to India he spent two years (1985-87) as a lecturer at the Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad. In 1988 he won the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademie award for the second time. Ladi's innovative work won him the first Bendre-Husain scholarship of the Bombay Art Society in 1989. Sculpture, according to Ladi, is the slowest of all art forms. The first problem Ladi had to deal with was the actual handling of the material. "One has to make friends with the material," he reflects, saying that in his case it was even more difficult because of his penchant for different materials. Ladi switched to newer materials like plastic and fibreglass. Ladi confesses he had tremendous problems handling plastic. "It was messy and irritating. But gradually I was able to make it say what I wanted. Of his work he says, "This is an out ?and-out personal world; based on anecdotes and an inward journey". Kamala Kapoor of Ladi's work, "One moment his work refers to the rational and familiar, the next it withdraws into fantasy, unhampered by logical restrictions. The tension in Ladi's sculpture between the apparent, the suggested and the impossible, is maintained throughout."