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Why This Website
Driven by a love for Bombay’s history and the cultural institutions that shaped it, this platform is dedicated to reviving and celebrating Vitrum. Our aim is to preserve the memory of the studio and those who built it, worked there, and made it an iconic creative space of its time. We hope this website—and the community around it—becomes the go-to space for all things Vitrum. Whether you’re an art lover, a history enthusiast, or someone with personal memories of the Studio, we invite you to connect with us and help keep Vitrum’s legacy alive.
Micro-timeline
1954
Vitrum Studio opens at Rutton Villa, Cumballa Hill; established as the charitable wing of the Vitrum glass factory.
Late 1950s–1960s
Studio thrives; works shown in-house and via South Bombay retailers; mosaic division advertises from 143-B Cumballa Hill Road.
1965
Reopens under new ownership after a short hiatus.
Early 1970s
Studio closes as Rutton Villa changes hands; legacy lives on through artworks and archives.
Founded in mid-20th-century Bombay by Polish refugees Simon and Hanna Lifschutz,
Vitrum began as a pioneering ceramic-and-mosaic studio, soon becoming a launchpad for generations of Indian artists. When Simon Lifschutz relocated to Bombay in the late 1940s, he set up the Vitrum factory in Vikhroli. Out of this grew Vitrum Studio, which opened in 1954 on the ground floor of Rutton Villa, 143-B Cumballa Hill Road.
Conceived as the charitable arm of the factory, the Studio was driven by a philanthropic vision. Its doors were open to any artist who wished to experiment across media, form and technique. Base materials, pigments and kiln-firing were provided free of charge, and artists could work without pressure or constraint. As Simon put it, the goal was simple: to ensure “there is no unemployment among Indian artists.”
Vitrum’s work reached public space as well as the home. At the factory, a monumental ceramic mural by K. K. Hebbar signaled its public-art ambition, while the mosaic division supplied Venetian-style glass mosaics that adorned prominent buildings, from banks to colleges, across the country. In homes, Vitrum made art accessible through everyday objects—tiles, trays, plates and tabletops—moderately priced and retailed through South Bombay outlets like Thacker & Co., Shirom, and the Indian Ministry’s Central Cottage Industries Emporium.
The Studio’s open, collaborative culture—bolstered by visiting mentors like Mané-Katz—helped young artists find their direction and shaped a vivid new contemporary Indian scene. In this sense, Vitrum truly was a launchpad for both celebrated and lesser-known artists, blending European influences with Indian motifs to create a modern idiom in ceramics and mosaics.
When the Lifschutz family moved to the UK, the Studio reopened in 1965 under new ownership. It was later rebranded as HexAmar Studio, before finally closing its doors in the early 1970s when Rutton Villa changed hands. Even so, Vitrum’s pioneering role—introducing and sustaining ceramic painting and mosaic work in India—endures through surviving pieces, archives and the careers it helped set in motion.
