One of India's important post-modernist painters, Sunil Das rose to prominence with his drawing of horses. "I must have done 7000 horses between 1950 to 60," he says. "In 1962, I went to Spain, where I was fascinated by the bull fights."
About 60 years of age, he can look back at his nine to ten phases of paintings, all of them marked by supreme skill and a sense of integrity. An indefatigable painter, Das jumped from one style to another easily.
Talking about his art style, he says, "To express my authentic feelings about reality, I have to interpret it, I have conceptualise it. The previous reality gets transformed in the laboratory of minds. Then, I bring it out on the canvas."
Das came from a middle class family and his father was just a small businessman. After completing school, he decided to become a painter and joined a local art school. "I am a good sports man," he says. "I like things which have a lot of rhythm and energy."
He doesn't ever use photographs or models for his painting. "I do a sketch before I start painting. I always struggle with colours and shapes, until they fall to desired pattern. Like a music conductor, I summon all my music instruments to play and orchestrate an aesthetic unit out of various experiences." He does not confine himself to using brush or 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 in the course of his travels that he chanced to spend a few months in Spain, where he developed his passion for horses and bulls. Das' paintings have also been influenced by his study of sculpture at Santiniketan, Kolkata, and his study of graphic art in Paris. His paintings have a kind of structure and rigidity that one would typically find in sculpture and in the etchings of graphic art.
Das's paintings not only express the physical attributes of his subjects but also their associative ones. Every once in a while he paints human beings, but his depiction of the human anatomy is skewed, to a point that it almost borders on macabre surrealism. For example, his series on women with mysterious, tantalising eyes - all oil on canvas, the portraits convey, in various forms including the erotic, the pressures women are subject to.
Hardly ever painting in loud or warm colors, Das uses soft brown, mauve and white in the background to bring out the drama of life. He blends talent with hard work. He works by suggestion and minimalism. Quite absurd in form, his paintings are morbidly fascinating. "I delve a lot on man's inhumanity to man," he says.
Das has the distinction of being the only Indian artist to have won a National Award (the Shiromani Kala Puraskar) while still an undergraduate at the Government College of Art and Craft, kolkata. Besides having been featured in several exhibitions, his works are also a part of the collections of renowned museums such as the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, the Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan, and the Ludwig Museum, Germany.
Born
(4 August 1939 - ) Calcutta
Education
• 1954-9 Diploma in Painting, Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta •
1961-3 (Murals) L'Ecole Nationale Superior des Beaux Arts, Paris (On a French Government Scholarship) Atelier 17, ParisAtelier Julien, Paris Solo Shows
• 1958 Guwahati, Assam Cotton College. •
1959 Calcutta Artist House •
1961 Club De Quatre Vents, Gallery Dean la Found, Paris. •
1962 Gallery Foyer Des Artists, Paris. •
1962 Gallery Jean Lafoud, France. •
1963 Gallery Maison Des Beaux Arts, Paris. •
1964 All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society, New Delhi. •
1965 Red Fort, New Delhi. •
1965 Gallery Dhoomimal’s, New Delhi. •
1965 Gallery Kumika Chemould, New Delhi. •
1965 Gallery Arts & Prints, Calcutta. •
1966 Gallery Priyadarshini, Calcutta. •
1966 Gallery Chemould, Calcutta. •
1966 Gallery Chemould, Calcutta. •
1966 Retrospective, Calcutta. •
1967 Private Residence, Calcutta. •
1967 Calcutta Information Centre. •
1968 Private Residence, Calcutta. •
1968 Birla Academy, Calcutta. •
1968 Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta. •
1969 USIS Auditorium Sponsored by Indo - American Society, Calcutta. •
1970 Gallery Unique, Calcutta. •
1970 Gallery Chemould, Calcutta. •
1971 Private Residence, Calcutta. •
1971 Max Muller Bhavan, Sponsored by M.M.B. Calcutta. •
1971 Heidelburg, Germany. •
1972 Musafir Sponsored at Birla Academy, Calcutta. •
1972 Rourkela Sponsored by Max Mueller Bhavan. •
1975 Pioker Gallery, Hamilton, New York •
1976 Retrospective, Calcutta. •
1983 Max Muller Bhavan, Calcutta. •
1984 Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay. •
1986 Dhoomimal Art Centre, New Delhi. •
1988 Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Calcutta. •
1990 Gallerie Ganesha, New Delhi. •
1991 Centre Art Gallery, Calcutta. •
1994 Cima Art International, Calcutta. •
1995 Village Gallery, New Delhi. Group Shows
• 1959 Calcutta House, Lalit Kala Akademi •
1961 Salon De La Jeune Peinture, Paris •
1961-63 La Gallery Foyer Des Art, Paris •
1961-63 Prix de Dome, Paris •
1961 Biennale de Prix, Paris •
1970 SOCA, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai •
1970-72 Indiche Kunst der Gegnwant, Gallery Cray, Zurich, Switzerland •
1970-72 ‘Man and his World’, India Pavilion, Montreal, Canada •
1971 International Triennale, Rabindrabharat, Lalit Kala Akademi •
1972 USIS Auditorium, Calcutta. •
1973-75 Everson Museum •
1974 Saralu Art Centre. •
1975 Hilton Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany •
1983 Max Mueller Bhavan, Calcutta •
1989 International Biennale, Sau Paulo, Brazil •
1989 International Biennale, Havana, Cuba •
1989 Festival of Japan, Tokyo •
1994-95 ‘Imagined City’, Museum of Modern Art, Sau Paulo & Rio de Janerio, Brazil •
1995 Village Gallery, New Delhi •
1996 ‘Modern & Contemporary Indian Paintings: One Hundred Years’ Sotheby’s Auction, London Honor Awards
• 1959 National Award, New Delhi. •
1960 Award from the Government College of Art & Craft, Calcutta. •
1960 Hyderabad Art Society, Hyderabad. •
1960 Academy of Fine Art, Calcutta. •
1960 All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society, New Delhi. •
1960 Jury Hyderabad Art Society, Hyderabad. •
1960 Gold Medal, Calcutta University. •
1960 French Government Scholarship. •
1960 Bombay Art Society. •
1960 Mysore Dasara Exhibition, Mysore. •
1962 Member de la Societe des Amis de Muses Nationale d’Art Moderne,Paris. •
1966 Jury Akademy of Fine Arts, Calcutta. •
1967 All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society, New Delhi. •
1975 Member of General Council Lalit Kala. •
1978 National Award. •
1982 Jury of National Exhibition of Art (Lalit Kala). •
1983 Commissioner Triennale, India. •
1989 Commissioner Sao Paulo, Biennale, Brazil. •
1991 Shrimoni Award, Calcutta.