Sunil Das
Sunil Das (4 August 1939 – 10 August 2015) was an Indian expressionist painter. He is known for the paintings in his Bull Series and his piece “Woman”] He was the founder member of Society of Contemporary Artists. Sunil Das was born in Calcutta, Kolkata, India. He joined the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata in 1955, then won a French Government Scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux arts in Paris. Das is the only Indian to receive the prestigious Shiromani Kala Puraskar for his artistic excellence while studying his undergraduate degree at the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata. Sunil Das was one of India’s most important post-modernist painters. He went through different styles of painting throughout his career. Das said, “To prevent myself from producing the same kind of work, I keep altering my vision.
Das said,”To prevent myself from producing the same kind of work, I keep altering my vision. From the day people begun to see me as a painter, a huge responsibility fell upon me, particularly to respond to the feelings of the people at the grassroots level who are also my viewer, as also to delve deep into realities of life around me.” At 60 years of age, he could 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. He was inspired by the force and the strength of the moving horse and went on to create a work made out of charcoal titled- Horses in Motion. His works revolved around Man-Woman relationships, Woman in her sexual empowerment and In her loneliness. He had around 88 solo exhibitions across the world including having his work included in the Paris Biennale.
He was the founding member of the Society of Contemporary Artists.
Works
Bull series
A woman in her failings (oil on canvas)
Horse series (charcoal)
In 2014 the Government of India conferred upon him its fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri.
