(1931- 16 March, 2012)
Bijan Chowdhury was born in Faridpur, Bengal (Now in Bangladesh), 1931. Later, he moved to Bengal, where he studied at the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, due to his Marxist beliefs but he was expelled before he could graduate. However, he returned to Bengal and completed his studies from Decca Art College (now in Dhaka). He was a renowned Indian contemporary artist. Choudhury was one of the artists who started the Society of Contemporary Artists in 1960. In 1964, he, along with Nikhil Biswas, Prakash Karmakar, Rabin Mondal, Jogen Chowdhury, and Dharaj Chowdhury, he founded the “Calcutta Painters Group”. They wanted to break from the traditions of the Bengal School of Art. In the late 70s, he became head of Indian Art College of Art and Draftsmanship, Kolkata.
Chowdhury used Calcutta’s folk and urban art traditions—such as Kalighat pats, clay dolls, Godabari Putul, and the styles of Jamini Roy and Zainul Abedin—in his figures. He was also inspired by modernist French artist Pablo Picasso. He included primitive, ancient, and folk elements in his art without focusing on their geographical origins, he also painted God and Goddesses and mythology. He experimented with various mediums, such as, oils, inks and pens, graphite, acrylics, mix media and watercolour. He was a politically aware painter, he thought that abstract art was created out of frustrations with a capitalist society, just like many other artists of his time. He had a unique style to creating human figures and depicting their life and activities in his surroundings and his colour palette was sober and subtle, which gives soothing to the eyes. He has explored the themes of Bengali poetry from its beginnings to the present, covering over four centuries of poetic development. His paintings tell stories but are not just illustrations. He acts as both a creator and an interpreter. Unlike recent Indian Surrealism and fantastic art, his use of imagery and symbolism is subtle. He avoids sensational and frightening elements, instead seeking meaningful visual forms that reflect the broad scope of human art from ancient times.
Chowdhury has participated in many art exhibitions, Nationally and Internationally. Also, he achieved awards from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1963 and the Rabindra Bharati Award in 1978. He illustrated several books, including Rabindranath Tagore's "Lakshmir Pariksha," and authored a book on art titled "Silpa Katha."
Bijan Chowdhury passed away in Kolkata on 16 March, 2012.
