Shanu lahiri biography of donald

Effortlessly the back of a crocodile serves as the terra firma for a rock and roll band just as naturally the monkey, the bird and the woman seem to display a few snatched moments of camaraderie. Parallel to being a painter, she also served as Professor and Dean of Visual Arts at the Rabindra Bharati University for over a decade. Numerous awards and accolades came her way and she was a much sought-after raconteur.

Her repertoire of solo exhibitions in India and abroad spanned over half a century. Committed and tireless at the practise of her art, the veteran artist continued to amaze with her ever expanding field of interest and activity, both in the studio and outside which even included kite flying! The Lahiri household is famous for its unusual abundance in everything, ranging from delicious homemade dishes to warmth and affection, even to strangers.

The current furry friends, the majestic cat Bonbibi and two dogs, Mou and Eije, differentiated only by their age gaps, are present to support you constantly. Her style comprises a mesmerizing dance of colours and emotions across the canvas. Not only the canvas, but she had also painted and sketched and scribbled on every surface she could find, including pots and bowls, walls, window panes, and small pieces of pitch boards.

Each brushstroke and line seems to carry a whisper of her soul, a glimpse into the depths of her creative spirit. Shanu Lahiri had always stood against the marketization of art, and her art is a testament to her indomitable spirit and creative prowess. Her journey through the artistic landscape has been one of breaking boundaries and redefining norms.

Her brilliance lay not only in her technical mastery but also in her ability to infuse her creations with a uniquely feminine perspective. Her works resonate with a depth of emotion and sensitivity that can only be born from a keen understanding of the nuances of life. Through her drawings of women of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, which are yet to be revealed to the larger audience, she celebrates womanhood in all its forms — strength, vulnerability, grace, and tenacity.

More importantly, throughout her lifetime and thereafter, her work not only graced galleries but also shaped cultural narratives, proving that art can be a powerful platform for initiating change. From this rich, historical repertoire of art emerged her own trademark style which she was known for- a particular mode of contorted human figuration, a flourish of bold lines and brushwork and raw bright colours with a flair for magnitude and scale.

From the s, one arresting feature of her oeuvre was her predilection for vast sizes and scale, as her work began to unfurl, mural-like over stretches of canvas or paper where she moved from densely narrative and illustrative compositions to a growing simplification and economy of forms addressing social issues. The human figure remained her forte, with figures expanding from her signature portrait heads in quiet repose to an animated array of animals.

Shanu lahiri biography of donald

Her first exhibition of paintings took place in which was followed by a string of exhibitions. On her return from Paris, she held a string of painting exhibitions both in India and abroad. Following her academic career in the West, in the late s, she joined the faculty of the Rabindra Bharati University as a reader in the visual arts department; later she became dean of its faculty of visual arts.

The decade of the 80's was dominated by the increasingly public profile of Shanu Lahiri, as an educationist, organiser and art-activist. The decade now saw the artist engaged in a public role. Following the practice of artists creating the image of goddess Durga at Bakulbagan which started in by Nirode Mazumdar, Shanu Lahiri designed the Durga idol twice for Bakulbagan, following the lead of other artists who each year created modern and stylistic idioms to work within a clay-modelled image of the goddess.

In the last two decades, the s and s, her studio had been a place of continued inventiveness and innovations. Retaining her primary commitment to painting and drawing, she tested new mediums and surfaces, experimenting in different phases with enamel painting on acrylic sheets, painting on wooden and ceramic plates, etchings on X-ray plates and "torch light" drawings on bromide paper.

A parallel rising urge for sculpture had seen her move from small clay models and perfume bottle figures cast in bronze. Through her art, Shanu Lahiri addressed the contemporary realities of society. Following the formation of the "Calcutta Group" ina tendency to get organised in groups emerged among artists in different pockets of India. In the "Progressive Painters Association" was formed under the guidance of K.

So without doubt the "Calcutta Group" was the pioneer of these efforts its shanu lahiri biography of donald artists' collectives which paved the way for others to follow. However, women were often excluded from these men's clubs. InCalcutta and to an extent, the country witnessed the mobilization of the first group of women artists: "The Group" as they called themselves, consisted of five members - Karuna ShahaShanu Lahiri, Meera MukherjeeSantosh Rohatgi and Shyamasree Basu.

Such an organization of women easily became the target of much implicit scorn and condescension in contemporary art circles. The artists, however remained resolute, most clear-cut and unequivocal about the necessity for such a forum of women artists. Women had for long been obscured in their profession, echoing what Virginia Woolf once stated- "For most of history, anonymous was a woman.

Such wider exposure was crucial for the artists. Despite holding exhibitions at regular intervals, with hardly any sales was disappointing. This is where a different approach to marketing and promotional activity would have helped, enabling a greater degree of engagement with more modern and avant-garde art trends. She often said that when she read a poem by Tagore she saw images, but on viewing his paintings she never felt a lyrical feeling.

This shortcoming experienced by her led her to write on the art of Rabindranath Tagore, which culminated into the book 'Rabindra Chitra Chetana'-which offers a critical insight into the art and visual vocabulary of Tagore. To coincide with the launch she also held an exhibition showcasing the work of her brothers Kamal and Nirode Mazumdar, and other members of her Mazumdar clan, nephew Chittrovanu, and niece Oditi.

It was impossible for anyone who had gone to meet Shanu Lahiri would leave unfed. Whether it was fixing salads quickly or preparing elaborate meals, she was known to be an experimenter in the kitchen also. A book titled Tabled by her daughter Damayanti Lahiri and designed by her nephew Chittrovanu Mazumdar was launched after her death and consists of a collection of her recipes, paintings, scribbles, and doodles.

It is a free flowing anecdotal installation, compiled in no particular direction-an assemblage of illustrations, photos, quirks, recipes and minor narratives. She made a whole stack, and then handed them over carefully. Her anti-nuclear pamphlets were done with so much care and intensity. I imagined her going from site to site, giving those out.

When did she have time to paint? But I also know she did, always, make time to paint. Skip to content Shanu Lahiri is no more. A total artist and a total activist. The kind so much rarer today.