Shyamal Dutta Roy

The imagery in my paintings comes mostly from my personal experiences. It is the visual world and its influences on me, that I try to reveal on my canvas.

Shyamal Dutta Ray's body of work constitutes a major turning point in the history of the Bengal school of art. Ray is credited with adding depth and intensity to the medium of watercolours, at a time when the Bengal school of Art traditionally used light and watery colours. His melancholic and pensive works reflect the contradictions of life around him.

Regarded as a master watercolourist, Ray is also a founding member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, an artists' collective, that sought to introduce innovativeness into the art world of the 1960s. Most of Ray's work reflects the city life of Calcutta, with its happiness and sorrow, struggle and strife, poverty and hope. The works also exhibit a sense of irony, surrealism and awareness of a disintegrating society.

Shyamal Dutta Ray studied at the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta. He has received many honours the Award of Merit from the Lalit Kala Academy, the Shiromani Kala Puraskar, and the Special Commendation of the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad. His works have been exhibited in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore. He has participated in international shows such as the Third World Biennale of Graphics, London, and the Havana Biennale, Cuba, to mention a few. His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Glenbarra Museum, Japan.

The Artist passed away on 19th May 2005

BORN

1934 Ranchi, Bihar

DIED

2005 Kolkata

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

1950-55 Diploma in Painting, Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata

SELECTED POSTHUMOUS EXHIBITIONS

2012-13 Calcutta Chromosome, The Viewing Room, Mumbai

2011-12 Reprise 2011, Aicon Gallery, New York

2010-11 Figure Landscape Part Two, Aicon Gallery, London

2010 Figure Landscape Part One, Aicon Gallery, New York

2009 Indian Art After Independence Selected Works from the Collections of Virginia & Ravi Akhoury and Shelley & Donald Rubin, Emile Lowe Gallery, Hempstead

2009 Wound, Aicon Gallery, London

2009 75th Birth Anniversary Show, Akar Prakar, Kolkata

2009 Tracing Time, Bodhi Art, Mumbai

2008 Post Independence Masters, Aicon Gallery, New York

2008 Shyamal Dutta Ray Memorial Show, Akar Prakar, Kolkata

2006 Tribute, Aicon Gallery, New York

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

1999 Watercolor Marks, Mumbai

1999 Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper, Bonhams, London

1997 Exhibition, Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata

1995 Modern and Contemporary Indian Paintings Sothebys Auction, London

1993 Artists for Helpage, Aspreys Auction, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1993 Wounds, Centre for International Modern Art CIMA, Kolkata

1991 Art For Spastics, Kolkata

1990 Bengal Art Today, Galerie 88, Kolkata

1987 Indian Drawing Today, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1984 Kala Yatra and Sistas, Chennai

1982 Kala Yatra, Mumbai, Bangalore, London, Manchester, Paris

1981 Kala Yatra, Hyderabad

1981 Indian Painting Today, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1971 Prints from India, Poland

1969 Traveling Exhibition, Asian Graphic Prints, USA

1958 Exhibition at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata

PARTICIPATIONS

1986 6th International Triennale, Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi

1983 Asian Art Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh

1982 National Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi

1982 Inaugural Exhibition, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal

1980 All India Graphic Exhibition, Chandigarh

1978,79,80,84 Inter Grafik, East Germany

1976 Western Pacific Print Biennale, Australia

HONORS AND AWARD

1958 Gold Medal, Academy of Fine Art, Kolkata

1968 Rabindra Bharati University Award, Kolkata

1968 Founder Member, Group 8, Kolkata

1972,73,75,78 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata

1982 National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi

1988 Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore

1988 Awarded Shiromani Puraskar