Sunil Das

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.

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.