"My works play on the deep, dark recesses of the human mind. My canvasses have a deep brooding quality."

A majority of Sanat Kar's works are surrealistic and have a curious dream-like appearance, mostly nightmarish. Figures are distorted and barely recognisable, and leave an uncomfortable feeling behind them. The same treatment is given to objects. As a result, all his paintings hover on the edge of reality without ever actually reaching there, symbolising the mysteries of life to which there are no answers.

Born in 1935 at Santiniketan,( West Bengal) Kar acquired his diploma in painting from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Kolkata in 1955. 

The artist maintains a low profile, and allows his work to speak for him. His paintings are an eloquent testimony to his talent and artistic powers. He uses the medium of tempera most often in his work and there are layers within layers that emerge on closer perusal. A favourite is the image of the sea: an angry grey green out of which arise men and women as if just born, still with the placental fluid obscuring their faces. A large number of the creatures are amphibious, showing the all-pervading influence of water on our lives and the fear that it can generate.

Sanjay Bhattacharya