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Bimal Dasgupta
Bimal Dasgupta was born in 1917.
His student years were spent with an uncle in Behrampur. He joined the
Government Art School Calcutta in 1937 as a student but could not
complete the six year course due to financial restrictions. He moved to
Delhi and started working as a commercial artist. Later he taught at the
Delhi Art College and pursued his painting passion on his own. The
Lalit Kala Akademi conferred a National Award on him in 1956 and a
fellowship in 1989. In 1961 he was given a Government scholarship for a
six month stay in Europe. He died in a car crash in 1995.
Dasgupta's paintings are a sublimation of his visual experience,
transmitting the power that commands the seas, the sky, the wood, the
green grass, or the stark ridges. In each of his works is a
juxtaposition of the horizontal and the vertical, a consummate artistry
manifest. Irrespective of its external identity, the image grows into a
harmonious whole. The artist's dexterity converts mass into
transparency, prosaic idols into poetry. The most remarkable aspect of
his art is that it reflects the true Indian ethos, one strong enough to
assimilate tradition and modernity.
Bimal Dasgupta felt that the decorative elements of his works or
his material success were incidental. Standing before a dreamy mountain
scene one does not look either for the mountain or the monetary value of
the piece. Each painting is like an encounter with an inner reality
where there is no action, no act of pontification. The only criterion is
the ultimate truth.
