Nandalal Bose | |
|---|---|
 Bose on a 1967 stamp of India | |
| Born | (1882-12-03)3 December 1882 |
| Died | 16 April 1966(1966-04-16) (aged 83) Santiniketan,West Bengal, India |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Contextual Modernism |
| Spouse | Sudhira Devi (1903) |
| Children | Gouri Bhanja (daughter) Jamuna Sen (daughter) |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Surendranath Kar (cousin) |
| Awards | Principal ofKala Bhavana,Santiniketan (1921),Padma Vibhushan (1954), Fellow of theLalit Kala Academy (1954), Deshikottama (1952), Honorary D.Litt, Silver Jubilee Medal, The Tagore Birth Centenary Medal, Honorary Doctor of the University of Calcutta |
Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modernIndian art and a key figure ofContextual Modernism.
A pupil ofAbanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his "Indian style" of painting. He became the principal ofKala Bhavan,Santiniketan in 1921. He was influenced by theTagore family and themurals of Ajanta; his classic works include paintings of scenes from Indian mythologies, women, and village life.
Today, many critics consider his paintings among India's most important modern paintings.[2][3][4] In 1976, theArchaeological Survey of India, Department of Culture,Govt. of India declared his works among the "nine artists" whose work, "not being antiquities", were to be henceforth considered "to be art treasures, having regard to their artistic and aesthetic value".[5]
He was given the work of illustrating theConstitution of India.
Nandalal Bose was born on 3 December 1882 in a middle-class Bengali family atHaveli Kharagpur, inMunger district ofBihar state. The family originally hailed fromJejur,Hooghly District ofWest Bengal.[6] His father, Purna Chandra Bose, was at that time working in the Darbhanga Estate.[7] His mother Khetramoni Devi was a housewife with a skill in improvising toys and dolls for young Nandalal. From his early days Nandalal began taking an interest in modelling images and later, decorating Puja pandals.
In 1898, at the age of fifteen, Nandalal moved to Calcutta for his high school studies in the Central Collegiate School. After clearing his examinations in 1902, he continued his college studies at the same institution. In June 1903 he married Sudhiradevi, the daughter of a family friend. Nanadalal wanted to study art, but he was not given permission by his family. Unable to qualify for promotion in his classes, Nandalal moved to other colleges, joining the Presidency College in 1905 to study commerce. After repeated failures, he persuaded his family to let him study art at Calcutta's School of Art.[8]
As a young artist, Nandalal Bose was deeply influenced by themurals of theAjanta Caves. He had become part of an international circle of artists and writers seeking to revive classical Indian culture; a circle that already includedOkakura Kakuzō,William Rothenstein,Yokoyama Taikan,Christiana Herringham,Laurence Binyon,Abanindranath Tagore, and the seminal London Modernist sculptorsEric Gill andJacob Epstein.[9][10]
To mark the 1930 occasion ofMahatma Gandhi'sarrest for protesting the British tax on salt, Bose created a black on white linocut print of Gandhi walking with a staff. It became the iconic image for the non-violence movement.[citation needed]
His genius and original style were recognised by artists and art critics likeGaganendranath Tagore,Ananda Coomaraswamy andO. C. Ganguli.[citation needed] These lovers of art felt that objective criticism was necessary for the development of painting and founded theIndian Society of Oriental Art.
He became principal of the Kala Bhavana (College of Arts) at Tagore's International UniversitySantiniketan in 1921.[11]
He was also asked byJawaharlal Nehru to sketch the emblems for the Government of India's awards, including theBharat Ratna and thePadma Shri.[12] Along with his discipleRammanohar, Nandalal Bose took up the task of beautifying/decorating the original manuscript of theConstitution of India.[13]
He died on 16 April 1966 inSantiniketan[14][15] of natural causes.[16]
Today, theNational Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi holds 7000 of his works in its collection, including a 1930 black and whitelinocut of theDandi March depicting Mahatma Gandhi, and a set of seven posters he later made at the request of Mahatma Gandhi for the 1938Haripura Session of theIndian National Congress.[17]
In his introduction for theChristie's catalogue,R. Siva Kumar wrote-[18]
Nandalal Bose (1882–1966) occupies a place in the history of Modern Indian art that combines those ofRaphael andDurer in the history of the Renaissance. Like Raphael, Nandalal was a great synthesizer, his originality lay in his ability to marshal discrete ideas drawn fromAbanindranath Tagore,Rabindranath Tagore,E. B. Havell,Ananda Coomaraswamy,Okakura Kakuzo andMahatma Gandhi into a unique and unified programme for the creation of a new art movement in India. And like Durer he combined a passion bordering on devotion with an irrepressible analytical mind that compelled him to prise open different art traditions and unravel their syntactic logic, and make them accessible to a new generation of Indian artists. But he did this so quietly and without self-assertive fanfare that the significance of his work is yet to be fully grasped even in India.
Some of his notable students wereE.KUMARIL SWAMYBenode Behari Mukherjee,Ramkinkar Baij,Beohar Rammanohar Sinha,K. G. Subramanyan,A. Ramachandran,Pratima Thakur,Jahar Dasgupta,Satyajit Ray,Dinkar Kaushik,Amritlal Vegad,A.D.Jayathilake (1756),[citation needed] andKiron Sinha[19]
Nandalal Bose, who left a major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, founded in 1907.
In 1954, he became the first artist to be electedFellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi, India's National Academy of Art. In 1954, Nandalal Bose was awarded thePadma Vibhushan.
In 1957, theUniversity of Calcutta conferred honorary D.Litt. on him.[20]Vishvabharati University honoured him by conferring on him the title of 'Deshikottama'.
The Academy of Fine Arts in Calcutta honoured Nandalal with the Silver Jubilee Medal. The Tagore Birth Centenary Medal was awarded to Nandalal Bose in 1965 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Acharya Nandalal, an Indian documentary film on the artist was made byHarisadhan Dasgupta in 1984.[21]
.jpg)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
