Dhiraj Choudhary
Dhiraj Choudhury (September 1936 – 1 June 2018) was an Indian painter. His work was displayed in more than eighty exhibitions, among those sixteen were international painting exhibitions. Dhiraj Choudhary makes no bones about the fact that he is a politically and socially motivated artist. He says, “For me, art is not merely an exercise in aesthetics or technical expertise. That is the reason I have never felt the need to pursue `art for art`s sake`. The better part of my creative forces, therefore, has been utilized in portraying the ills of our society, and in doing so, the hungry, the deprived, the tortured, the wounded have invariably crept into my works. The pictures I paint may not be pretty, but they are an expression of my love for humanity and my genuine concern for the world at large.
Initially in the 1960s, Choudhary made the condition of the downtrodden and displaced the focus of his work. Whether it is the famine-stricken peasants of Bengal crying out for some food, the miserable farmers of the South gathering the harvest in other`s fields, a murdered agitator lying on a Mumbai street, drifters or prostitutes, Dhiraj lends them an extremely ironical air.
Choudhury was born in 1936 in Bengal and took up painting as a budding artist from his childhood. Choudhury taught at the College of Art, New Delhi.
He has been Professor of Art in Delhi College of Art. His students are a wealth to the nation and to the world of art itself. Choudhury has to his credit over 75 solo shows conducted in India, France, Switzerland, England, USA and Singapore. His Saga of India’s freedom struggle is a collection to remember. So is his “Pain, Women and Clown”, 1995, at Birla Academy of Art, Kolkata. His works are part of the prestigious collections at National Gallery of Modern Art, Lalit Kala Academy, Rashtrapati Bhavan, embassies of Belgium, Australia, Netherlands, and Singapore etc. and quite a few private collections at home and abroad. His awards tally stand at over 15 big ones. Dhiraj Choudhury could well be your gateway to watch human dynamism and perseverance unfold in a pictorial statement of sorts.
In 1999, with an absolute turn of perspective, Chowdhury has endeavored to center our attention on the theme of Love – something he believes can eradicate the violence and greed we face everyday. He has thoroughly explored the concept and emotion of Love, including its dark side from which arrogance, envy and resentment are born. His sentiment and objective remain unaltered though – “Art, I believe, can play an active role in creating social awareness and I would, in my own small way, try to light a candle in the darkness of ignorance and greed.”
In his later works the crucial medium is acrylic paint used on canvas. He has used all the primary colors with small tints of wash, which makes the painting come alive with vibrancy. Since his forte is drawing, we also see strong and bold lines that cut the figures and forms from the background. In this series Choudhary`s subjects are simple and communicative. He uses the images of man and woman, mother and child, clowns or natural images like flowers, foliage, animals, birds and butterflies. In 2001, Dhiraj was invited to Hertfordshire, UK to curate an exhibition and conduct art workshops on the theme `Love`.
- 1960 Sketches and watercolours, Coffee house, Calcutta.
- 1970 Coloured ink on paper, Triveni Gallery, New Delhi.
- 1972 ‘Journey from New Delhi to Kashmir’, Srinagar.
- 1971 ‘Bangladesh’, New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta
- 1979 “Child” New Delhi, Calcutta, London.
- 1985 “Youth” New Delhi, Calcutta
- 1990 Drawing, Sanskriti Art Gallery, Calcutta
- 1991 Three Decades of Drawing, Art Konsult, New Delhi
- 1993 Banalata Sen, Metropolitan Gallery, Kolkata
- 1996 South of France Art Consult New Delhi
- 1998 ’50 years’ struggle for freedom LKA, New Delhi
- 2001 ‘Water Colour 1955-2000’, Art Konsult, New Delhi
- 2001 Time & Space Gallery, Bangalore, Art World, Chennai
- 2007 Works on paper, Time & Space Gallery, Bangalore.
- 2007 K2 Gallery Kolkata, Shrishti Gallery, Hyderabad.
- 2009 ‘Call of Contours’ Wood & Bronze, Bangalore & Delhi and Published book on wood and bronze