Sunil Das

BORN
August 4, 1939 Calcutta

DIED
August 10, 2015 Kolkata

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS
1961-63 Ecole Nationale Superieure, Paris Scholarship from the French Government
1961-63 Research in fresco and mosaic with Monsieur Chapelain-Midy and Monsieur J. Aujame, Paris
1961-63 Studied graphic art with William Hayter and Krishna Reddy
1961-63 Research in painting, Atelier Julian and Atelier 17, Paris
1954-59 Diploma in painting, Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Beware Be-Aware, Gallery Kolkata, Kolkata
2008 Endless Night, Ganges Art, Kolkata
2005-06 Art Moves Works by Sunil Das, organized by Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Park Hotel, Kolkata and Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2005 Horses and Bulls Paintings on Canvas and Paper by Sunil Das, Jamaat, Bombay
2003 Sunil Das in Retrospect 1957-2003, ITC Sonar Bangla Art Gallery, Kolkata
2001 Drawings Bulls and Horses, Dhoomimal Art Centre, New Delhi
2000 Art Heritage, New Delhi
1999-2000 Old Works by Sunil Das, Gallery Om, New Delhi
1999 Drawings and Collages, Cymroza Art Gallery, Bombay
1999 Paintings, ABC Academy of Art and Culture
1999 San Francisco, USA and Gajah Gallery, Singapore
1998 Gallery Mohanjeet, Paris
1997 The Village Gallery, New Delhi
1997 Paintings and Watercolours, Art Today, New Delhi
1996 British Council, Calcutta
1995-96 Many Faces of Sunil Das, Gallerie Ganesha, New Delhi
1995-96 Exhibition of paintings by Sunil Das, Gallery ABC, Varanasi
1995 Drawing Installations, Village Gallery, New Delhi.
1994 Recent Drawings, CIMA International Modern Art Centre, Calcutta
1991 Centre Art Gallery, Calcutta
1990 Gallerie Ganesha, New Delhi.
1988 Drawings, Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Calcutta
1986 Trends in Bengal Art, Dhoomimal Art Centre, New Delhi.
1984 Confrontations, Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay.
1983 Paintings and drawings, Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta
1976-78 Retrospective, Kuala Lumpur, Basel and New York
1976-78 Exhibitions in Basel, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and New York
1976 Retrospective, Calcutta
1975 Pioker Gallery, Hamilton, New York
1975 Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta
1972 Rourkela, Max Mueller Bhavan.
1972 Musafir, Birla Academy of Art and Culture and USIS Auditorium, Calcutta
1971 Heidelburg, Germany.
1971 Private Residence, Calcutta
1971 Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta
1970 Unique Gallery, Calcutta
1970 Chemould Gallery, Calcutta
1969 Recent Works, Indo-American Society, Calcutta
1968 Private Residence, Calcutta
1968 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1968 Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta
1967 Private Residence, Calcutta
1967 Calcutta Information Centre, Calcutta
1967 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1966 Priyadarshini Gallery, Calcutta
1966 Chemould Gallery, Calcutta
1966 Retrospective, Calcutta
1965 Red Fort, New Delhi.
1965 Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi.
1965 Recent drawings and watercolors, Kunika Chemould Gallery, New Delhi.
1965 Arts and Prints Gallery, Calcutta 1964 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society AIFACS, New Delhi.
1963 Maison Des Beaux Arts Gallery, Paris.
1962 Foyer Des Artists Gallery, Paris.
1962 Jean Lafond Gallery, France.
1961 Club De Quatre Vents, Dean la Found Gallery, Paris.
1959 Artist House, Calcutta 1958 Assam Cotton College, Guwahati

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012-13 Calcutta Chromosome, The Viewing Room, Mumbai
2011 The Aviary, Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata
2010 The Living Ensign, Ensign Gallery, New Delhi
2010 The Perception of Image and Symbol Painters, Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata
1998 Fifty Years of Independence, Apparao Galleries, Chennai, Martini Gallery, Hong Kong
1998 Tribute to Mother Teresa, Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai
1998 The Teacher for Children, organized by Ashraya, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
1997 Contemporary Small Format Miniatures, Apparao Galleries, Chennai
1997 The Looking Self, Lakeeren Art Gallery, Mumbai
1997 Rendezvous with Destiny, organized by CIMA Centre for International Modern Art, Kolkata, and NGMA National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi Delhi
1997 Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
1997 Within the Frame, organized by Apparao Galleries, Chennai in New York, London, Hong Kong, and New Delhi
1996 Bose Pacia Gallery, New York
1996 Modern and Contemporary Indian Paintings One Hundred Years Sotheby's Auction, London
1995 Art for CRY, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1995 Village Gallery, New Delhi
1994 Landscape, Gallery Gandhara, Calcutta
1994 Contemporary Miniatures, CIMA International Modern Art Centre, Calcutta
1994-95 Imagined City, Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1993 Wounds, CIMA International Modern Art Centre, Calcutta
1992 East Meets West, Oxford Gallery, New York
1992 Contemporary Indian Art, Vadehra Art Gallery, Vadodara
1990 Exhibition of Drawings by Seven Artists, Gallerie Ganesha, Calcutta
1990 Bengal Art Today, Galerie 88, Calcutta
1990 Calcutta 300 Through the Eyes of Painters, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1990 Contemporary Indian Art, Glenbarra Art Museum, Himeji, Japan
1990 Journeys Within a Landscape, Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay
1990 Calcutta Dream, Alliance Francaise, Calcutta
1990 Contemporary Indian Artists, Art and Data Gallery, Germany
1990 Sunil and Robert Max, Central Fine Art Gallery, New York
1990 Reflection and Image, Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay
1986 Zeitgenonssissche Indiseme Malerie, Germany
1983 Max Mueller Bhavan, Calcutta
1979-81 Contemporary Indian Painting, Kala Yatra, Chennai
1976-78 Society of Contemporary Artists, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1976-77 Society of Contemporary Artists, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1976 Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta
1975 Hilton Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
1975 Max Muller Bhavan, Bangalore
1975 Society of Contemporary Artists, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1974 Sarala Art Centre.
1974 Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta
1973-75 Everson Museum, New York
1973-75 Francophile Painters, Calcutta
1972 USIS Auditorium, Calcutta
1970-72 Indiche Kunst der Gegenwart, Coray Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
1970 Society of Contemporary Artists, New Delhi
1970 Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay
1969 Indian Painters 6 9, Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta
1968 Society of Contemporary Artists, Santiniketan
1968 International Inter-Fauna Art Exhibition, Hunting Museum, Dusseldorf, Germany
1967-69 Calcutta, Bombay and Santiniketan
1967 Progressive Painters Association, Chennai
1967 Calcutta Information Centre, Society of Contemporary Artists, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1966 German Social Centre, Rourkela
1966 Chemould Gallery, Bombay
1965 Indian Contemporaries, Chemould Gallery, Bombay
1965 Kunika-Chemould Gallery, New Delhi
1965 Bombay Art Festival, Bombay
1964 Society of Contemporary Artists, New Delhi and Bombay
1964 Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta
1963 Prix de Dome, Paris
1963 Prix des Peintures, Etrangeres Exhibition, Paris
1963 Maison des Beaux Arts Gallery, Paris
1962 Tedsco Gallery, Paris
1962 Maison de Ministere des Affaires, Etrangeres, Paris
1962 Salon de la Pintura Joven, Paris
1961 Society of Contemporary Artists, Calcutta
1961 Tedsco Gallery, Paris
1961 Salon de la Pintura Joven, Paris
1960 Society of Contemporary Artists, Calcutta and Bombay
1958-66 Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta

PARTICIPATIONS
2013 The Nude and the Naked Body in Modern Indian Art, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 Manifestations VI, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 Manifestations V, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010 Manifestations IV, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
1999 Annual Exhibition, 32nd Anniversary of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1989 20th International Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1989 International Biennale, Havana, Cuba
1989 Japan Festival, Tokyo
1989 International Triennial, New Delhi
1984-86 Tokyo Biennale, Japan
1982 5th International Triennial, India
1971 2nd International Triennial, Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1971 Man and His World, organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in the Indian Pavilion, Montreal, Canada
1964-66 National Exhibition, New Delhi
1962 Biennial of Prix, Paris
1961 Biennial of Prix, Paris
1959-80 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1955-90 Prize Winners Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

HONORS AND AWARD
2008 Taj Ratna Award
1991 Shrimoni Award, Calcutta
1989 Commissioner, Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil.
1983 Commissioner, India Triennial.
1982 Jury, National Art Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1978 National Award
1975 Member, General Council, Lalit Kala Academy
1967 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society AIFACS, New Delhi.
1966 Jury, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta
1962 Member, Societe des Amis de Muses Nationale d'Art Moderne, Paris.
1960 Government College of Art and Craft Award, Calcutta
1960 Hyderabad Art Society, Hyderabad.
1960 Academy of Fine Art, Calcutta
1960 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society AIFACS, New Delhi.
1960 Jury of the Hyderabad Art Society, Hyderabad.
1960 Gold Medal, University of Calcutta, Calcutta
1960 French Government Fellowship
1960 Bombay Art Society, Bombay
1960 Mysore Dasara Exhibition, Mysore.
1959 Gold Medal, Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta
1959 National Award, New Delhi.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

I keep modifying my vision to avoid producing the same kind of work. From the day people started seeing me as a painter, a huge responsibility fell on me, particularly to respond to the feelings of the grassroots, who are also my viewers, and to delve into the realities of life around me.

Sunil Das, one of India's leading postmodernist painters, rose to fame with his horse drawings. I must have painted 7,000 horses between 1950 and 1960, he says. In 1962, I went to Spain, where I was fascinated by bullfights.

At 60, he can recall his nine or ten phases of paintings, all of them marked by supreme skill and a sense of integrity. Das, an indefatigable painter, jumped from one style to another with ease.

Talking about his artistic style, he says To express my authentic feelings about reality, I have to interpret it, I have to conceptualize it. The above reality is transformed into the laboratory of the mind. Then I put it on the canvas.

Das comes from a middle-class family and his father was a small businessman. After finishing school, he decided to become a painter and joined a local art school. I am a good sportsman, he says. I like things that have a lot of rhythm and energy.

He never uses photographs or models for his paintings. I make sketches before I start painting. I always struggle with colors and shapes, until they give the desired pattern. Like an orchestra conductor, I summon all my musical instruments to play and orchestrate an aesthetic unity from various experiences. He does not limit himself to using a brush or a pen while painting and often paints with the palms of his hands or with his fingers.

A French art scholarship with the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts took him to Europe. It was during his travels that he happened to spend a few months in Spain, where he developed his passion for horses and bulls. Das's paintings have also been influenced by his sculpture studio in Santiniketan, Calcutta, and his graphic art studio in Paris. His paintings have a kind of structure and rigidity that one would typically find in sculpture and graphic art prints.

Das's paintings not only express the physical attributes of his subjects but also their associative attributes. He occasionally paints human beings, but his depiction of human anatomy is skewed, to an extent that almost borders on macabre surrealism. For example, in his series on women with mysterious and tempting eyes - all oils on canvas - the portraits convey, in various ways, including erotically, the pressures to which women are subjected.

Das rarely paints in strong or warm colors, using soft brown, mauve, and white in the background to highlight the drama of life. He combines talent with hard work. He works by suggestion and minimalism. Quite absurd in form, his paintings are morbidly fascinating. I focus a lot on man's inhumanity to man, he says.

Das has the distinction of being the only Indian artist to have won a Shiromani Kala Puraskar National Award while still a student at the Government College of Art and Craft in Calcutta. Apart from having participated in several exhibitions, his works are also part of the collections of renowned museums such as the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, the Glenbarra Art Museum in Japan, and the Ludwig Museum in Germany.

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