ARUP DAS

Arup Das is a figurative painter and an acclaimed muralist. Human figures occupy the central position in his paintings. Das attempts to portray man as a social and historical being, placed within the framework of his cultural and natural environment. He is as comfortable painting with oils as he is with watercolours. He is at his productive and innovative best when he is working with a combination of media. He employs a wide variety of shades to depict his human figures.

“There is a mingling of pictures and a blurred effect in my work which facilitates interpretations of my creations,” he says A recurring theme in Das’s paintings is the coming of the Messiah with its message of eternal hope and ultimate salvation for mankind. Das’s canvases are a judicious blend of ideas that are timeless but told in a language that is pertinent to our times.

Born in West Bengal in the year 1924, Arup Das graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta. He has held 22 solo shows in several countries including Japan, the UK and Canada, and has participated in 24 group shows in India and abroad. He won the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1957 and the President’s Silver Plaque in 1957. He lives and works in Delhi. His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Modem Art, New Delhi, the Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi, and the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi.

Arup passed away in 2004