We Mourn the loss of an artist who created the Rock Garden of Chandigarh,
a visionary landscape of sculpture and architecture
NEK CHAND SAINI (15 DECEMBERr 1924 – 12 JUNE 2015)

Art & Deal Correspondent

Nek Chand Saini was born in 1924 in Berian-Kalan, (now in Pakistan) in a family of landlords located 90 km north of Lahore. As an adolescent, Chand left his home to live with an uncle to attend high school at the University of Lahore. At the age of 23, in August of 1947, when the British rule came to an end after the partition of India his family (Hindu by religion) were forced to flee their village which fell within the borders of muslim Pakistan. A self-taught artist, famous for building the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, a forty-acre garden in the city of Chandigarh, India which is a combination of sculpture, architecture, and visionary landscape. The complete picture of the garden takes form of a series of chambers and courtyards with winding walkways that open out to large open spaces, and high waterfalls.