Mrinal Kanti
Das
Bengal School of Art and
Contemporary Art – INDIA
Born - 7.1.1928 – 27.6.1990
Sri Mrinal Kanti Das was born at Midnapore
town, West Bengal, in 07-01-1928.
His father Hemanta kumar Das encouraged and natured his artistic talents. After finishing school, he joined the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, and graduated from it with a first class first in 1948.
He was a freelance painter for some while. In 1967; he was invited by Kala Bhavan, Viswa Bharati University to Lecture on art. While in Santiniketan, he was able to forge an intimacy with Binode Behary Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. Binode Behary arranged for his exhibition at the gallery at Kala- Bhavan.
While in Santiniketan,he has been offered the post of art teacher by the Ramakrishna Mission at their prestigious School at Narendrapur, till his death in 1990.
He headed the art department and during the weekends he used to come to Kolkata to administer the art teaching wing of the Society of Oriental Art.
Before joining Kala- Bhavan, he had founded and run the “Kala-Bharati” art institution. He received encouragement from Keshab Chadra Sen’s daughter, the Maharani of Mayurbhanj, Sucharu Devi. His other patrons were Scientist like Meghnad Saha, stage actors Sisir Kumar Bhaduri, artists like Jamini Roy Sunayani Devi and linguist like Suniti Kumar Chatterjee.
His father Hemanta kumar Das encouraged and natured his artistic talents. After finishing school, he joined the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, and graduated from it with a first class first in 1948.
He was a freelance painter for some while. In 1967; he was invited by Kala Bhavan, Viswa Bharati University to Lecture on art. While in Santiniketan, he was able to forge an intimacy with Binode Behary Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. Binode Behary arranged for his exhibition at the gallery at Kala- Bhavan.
While in Santiniketan,he has been offered the post of art teacher by the Ramakrishna Mission at their prestigious School at Narendrapur, till his death in 1990.
He headed the art department and during the weekends he used to come to Kolkata to administer the art teaching wing of the Society of Oriental Art.
Before joining Kala- Bhavan, he had founded and run the “Kala-Bharati” art institution. He received encouragement from Keshab Chadra Sen’s daughter, the Maharani of Mayurbhanj, Sucharu Devi. His other patrons were Scientist like Meghnad Saha, stage actors Sisir Kumar Bhaduri, artists like Jamini Roy Sunayani Devi and linguist like Suniti Kumar Chatterjee.
He was a shy man who was abhorred the
limelight. At the age of fifty in 1977,he had first solo exposition in Kolkata.
Since then, his solo exhibitions always had a corner for promising young
artists. He was a prolific painter. In art school, he was deeply influenced by
his mentor Sri Nandalal Bose, and his disciple Sri Satyendranath Banerjee. His
guru did not only teach him the basic of paintings but instilled in him a
respect for the five thousand years old tradition of Indian art. The other
teacher who left a lasting impression on Mrinal kanti’s mind was Basanta
Ganguly. Ganguly was magician in oils and taught Mrinal Kant to observe life
and nature and to recreate it vividly with brush.
As a painter Mrinal kanti served the Neo-Indian School that Abanindra nath Tagore had founded. Mrinal Kanti’s media are mostly wash, wash and transparent watercolors opaque water colours, mixed media, ink and brush or pen. He, however, by- passed the set patterns of the school. He hardly, if ever, painted the mythical or legendary world. He never overtly refers toAjanta or medieval miniatures. Yet
much of the tradition is operative. His pictorial language has found visual
correlatives for the exuberance of nature and people. Above all he has lovingly
portrayed woman in a variety of moods and postures .They placed in the context
of the home or nature, nude, and draped, sensitive and sensuous. He has done away
with the Victorian prudery and painted them with a passionate intensity that
remind one of Indian erotic art. Yet his tactful use of gradation of raw
subdued hues and geometrical arrangements of his composition focus attention on
formal qualities which are purely pictorial and graphic. This deliberate
program of reality and imagination marks him out as a significant and maestro
painter of his time.
Sandip Sarkar
As a painter Mrinal kanti served the Neo-Indian School that Abanindra nath Tagore had founded. Mrinal Kanti’s media are mostly wash, wash and transparent watercolors opaque water colours, mixed media, ink and brush or pen. He, however, by- passed the set patterns of the school. He hardly, if ever, painted the mythical or legendary world. He never overtly refers to
Sandip Sarkar
Art Historian and Critic
Paintings :
contact :MoinakDas,moinakdas@hotmail.com / musicmdas@gmail.com
