H.Das

BORN
February 1, 1921, Dinajpur District, Bangladesh

DIED
January 31, 1993, Calcutta

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS
1951-81 Lecturer in the Department of Graphics, Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta
1947 Taught Engraving, Government School of Art, Calcutta
1946 Two years' teaching, with Ramendranath Chakravarti, Government School of Art, Calcutta
1943 Art Teacher, Zilla School, Coomilla, East Bengal Bangladesh
1938-44 Diploma, Government School of Art, Calcutta

SELECTED POSTHUMOUS EXHIBITIONS
2010 Manifestations IV, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2004 Manifestations II, organized by Delhi Art Gallery, Mumbai and New Delhi
2003 Manifestations, organized by Delhi Art Gallery, Mumbai and New Delhi
1999 Retrospective, Right Lines Art Gallery, Bangalore
1998 Retrospective, Alternative Art Gallery, Calcutta

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 Solo exhibition, The End of Toil. Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
1983 Retrospective, Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi
1979 Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta
1964 Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharti University, Santiniketan

PARTICIPATIONS
1960 20th All India Annual Art Exhibition, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi
1959 3rd International Graphic Art Exhibition, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
1958 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi, Bulgaria
1956 Silver Jubilee Art Exhibition, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi
1952 Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar
1951 58th and 10th All India Art Exhibition, Shilpa Kala Parishad, Patna
1951 20th All India Annual Art Exhibition, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi
1950 Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta
1941 All India Industrial Art Exhibition, Calcutta

HONORS AND AWARD
1989 Awarded the Abanindra Puraskar, Rabindra Bharti University, Calcutta
1986-87 Akademi Award, West Bengal State Academy of Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts, Calcutta
1970 Smithsonian Printmaking Workshop, New Delhi
1958 Gold Medal, Society of Painters, Chennai
1955, 56, 57, 61, 68 Gold Medal, Mysore Dasara Exhibition, Mysore
1953 Silver Medal, Mysore Dasara Exhibition, Mysore
1952 Works of Art Included in Encyclopedia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
1950, 51, 58, 62, 63 Gold Medal, Shilpa Kala Parishad, Patna
1950 Published a Book of Prints entitled Bengal Village in Wood
1949, 50, 54 Gold Medal, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta
1949, 55 Gold Medal, Hyderabad Art Society, Hyderabad
1941 Certificate of Merit, All India Art Exhibition in Industry, Calcutta

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in 1921 in Dinajpur, a small town in undivided Bengal, now Bangladesh, Haren Das graduated in Fine Arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta. He specialized in graphic arts, as well as studying mural painting.

Immediately after graduating in 1938, he joined his alma mater as a teacher. He also enrolled in a two-year teacher training course, where he opted to study graphic arts, woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings. Das is considered one of the finest graphic artists India has ever produced, especially in woodcuts.

Das introduced line engraving and etching into the art curriculum at the Government College of Arts and Crafts, thus laying the foundation for the teaching of printmaking and graphic arts in India. He once told an art writer that just as a poet or a musician expresses his emotions and his interpretations of life through words and sounds, an artist visualizes the phenomenal world around him in the receptacle of his mind and expresses it in color and form. But an artist obsessed with woodcuts sees life from a special point of view and must work with light and shadow, composing them into a picture and adapting his medium to the presentation.

His works, especially the woodcuts and etchings, captured rural and pastoral Bengal. Despite using restraint and economy, Das has managed to offer a glimpse of a Bengal that no longer exists. Most of his work is a nostalgic reflection of a childhood and youth spent in Dinajpur. In his works, the artist depicts man as a part of nature, living in harmony with the elements around him. His works speak of cobbled streets, buffalos, the village well, and women with pots on their heads.

A winner of several national awards, Das held several solo and group exhibitions across India. His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, the Calcutta Art Gallery, and many other state galleries. In 1950, he published a book of prints titled Bengal Village in Wood.

Haren Das died in Calcutta in 1968.

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