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"For me, art is an expression of my inner most self. This is the only medium I know. With my brush, oils, pencil and charcoal, I portray emotions. And before I know it, I am transported into another world. I gradually find my canvas coming alive."
Rabin Mondal was born in 1932, in Kolkata, in a poor government official`s family. He graduated with Diploma in Fine Arts from the Vidyasagar Art School.His works exploit the grotesque to...
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"For me, art is an expression of my inner most self. This is the only medium I know. With my brush, oils, pencil and charcoal, I portray emotions. And before I know it, I am transported into another world. I gradually find my canvas coming alive."
Rabin Mondal was born in 1932, in Kolkata, in a poor government official`s family. He graduated with Diploma in Fine Arts from the Vidyasagar Art School.His works exploit the grotesque to express inner turmoil and human struggles. His feeling towards his environment has been rather queer. Perhaps the milieu in which he spent his formative years has something to do with it. Mondal grew up in a populous industrial town of Howrah, near Kolkata. "I know the big city across the Ganga intimately," he says. "In the dark alleys of the city, nightmarish poverty stared one in the face. I saw the poorest of the poor and the affluent live within a stone throw away form each other. It was tragic to watch some lying untreated, while those who could afford it continued to spend money on even a dead man."
The industrial belt of Howrah, with its inherent tendency towards violence, anguish and suffering influenced him deeply, and found its way into his works. So did ugly street battles fought by political parties. Mondal discovered that his artistic temperament was out of keeping with the hostile environment and situation.
Besides a debilitating knee injury in his childhood created a sense of isolation in the artist, which also finds expression in his canvas. He says what saved him from sheer madness was his talent in art. In 1949, he joined the Vidyasagar College of Art in Kolkata. At that time, a festival of French artists was being held in the city. It exposed him to the works of French modernist artists. Prior to this, he had no exposure to the international art world. He was only familiar with different schools of Indian art, particularly the Bengal school.
As a young painter, Mondal was attracted by Jamini Roy`s folk style and Rabindranath Tagore`s disquieting paintings and drawings. But the show by French artists was virtually a turning point in his artistic career. "This was like opening a window to an astounding, astonishing, unsuspected world," he says. This encounter with avant-garde Western art helped him to later incorporate elements from it in his own work.
His works were first displayed in 1955, as part of a group exhibition along with other leading artists of Bengal school. He held his first solo exhibition in 1961 at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata. Mondal`s works are mainly figurative. He paints in bold strokes and creates tableaux, whose themes are universal. The faces of his figures stare at you out of the canvas, strange and pensive, but also strong and defiant. Not yet beaten, surviving by sheer force of spirit. He mostly uses dense pigments in blacks and reds, with only occasional moss green and turquoise colors seeping through.
For someone who hates all forms of pretentiousness, he has done a series of painting on queens and empresses. "Though they belong to the past, queens live in virtual isolation, and I feel sorry for them," he says. "It is this isolation that makes the queen, for me, a fascinating subject." One of the criticisms leveled against him is that his works are not pleasing to the eye. To which he replies, "Painting is for communication and not for decoration."
Samir Dutta, art critic of the Kolkata based Statesman newspaper, who has also made a TV documentary on him, says, "Mondal has evolved a signature of his own. His style over decades of defiant, bold experiments takes in imagery of primeval humans asserting themselves against great odds in a dense palette of both pure and mixed colors. Here you have formidable drama, a throbbing theatre of primitive that has its basis in remorseless jungle of today`s urban existence."
Mondal has also been quite active with the avant-garde artist`s organizations in the city. He was a Lalit Kala Akademi member from 1979-1982 that has also published a book of his drawings. It had taken Rabin Mondal decades to emerge as one of India`s leading modern painters.
The artist passed away on 2 July 2019.
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Born
1929
Howrah Kolkata
Died
2019
Education
1959 Completed his Art Appreciation Course, Ashutosh Museum, Kolkata University, Kolkata.
1956-58 Attended Evening Classes, Indian College of Art and Draughtmanship, Kolkata.
1952 Bachelor of Commerce, Vidyasagar College, Kolkata University, Kolkata.
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016 'Kingdom of Exile: A...
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016 'Kingdom of Exile: A Retrospective', DAG Modern, New York
2014-15 'Kingdom of Exile: A Retrospective', Delhi Art Gallery, Mumbai
1999 Alternative Art Gallery, Kolkata
1993 Little Art Gallery, Kolkata
1993 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1991 L.T.G. Art Gallery, New Delhi
1990 Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai
1989 Taj Art Gallery, Mumbai
1987 Art Heritage, New Delhi
1987 Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata
1984 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1983 Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi
1982 Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi
1980 Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai
1980 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1979 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1978 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1977 Triveni Gallery, New Delhi
1976 French Cultural Centre, Kolkata
1974 Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi
1973 Gallery Chemould, Kolkata
1971 Gallery Chemould, Kolkata
1966 Priyadarshini Gallery, Kolkata
1965 Artistry House, Kolkata
1963 Arts and Prints Gallery, Kolkata
1961 Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata
Selected Group Exhibitions
2010 'The Living Insignia', Gallery Ensign, New Delhi
2010 'Pretty Ugly', Bose Pacia, Kolkata
2009 'The Root of Everything', Gallery Mementos, Bangalore
2008 'Frame Figure Field: 20th Century Modern and Contemporary Indian Art', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2007 'Still Life: Adaptation in 20th Century Indian Art', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2006 'The Naked Line: Drawings by 12 Artists', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2002 The Gallery Chemould, Kolkata
2002 Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata
2002 Osian’s Exhibition and Auction, Mumbai
2001 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
2001 Exhibition and Auction at Art for Heart’s Sake, Mumbai
2000 The Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1999 The Alternative Art Gallery, Kolkata
1998 ‘10th Anniversary Exhibition of Contemporary Painters’, organized by the Centre Art Gallery, Kolkata
1998 Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
1996 LTG Art Gallery, New Delhi
1996 ‘Water Colors from West Bengal’, organized by Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai
1995 Galerie La Mere, Kolkata
1994 L.T.G. Art Gallery, New Delhi
1993 Little Art Gallery, New Delhi
1992 Contemporary Indian Art, Dhaka, Bangladesh
1989 Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust Exhibition, New Delhi
1989 Taj Art Gallery, Mumbai
1988 Art for Cry , Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore
1988 Gallerie 88, Kolkata
1985 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1985 The Calcutta Information Centre and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1983 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1983 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1982 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1981 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1980 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1980 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1980 ‘Miniature Format Exhibition’, organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1979 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1979 Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi
1978 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1978 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1976 Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata
1976 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1975 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1975 Shridaharani Gallery, New Delhi
1975 Alliance Francaise, Kolkata
1974 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1973 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1972 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1972 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1972 Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan
1971 Calcutta Information Center, Kolkata
1971 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1970 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1969 Calcutta Information Center, Kolkata
1969 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), New Delhi
1968 Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan
1965 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1964 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1964 All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Gallery, New Delhi
1963 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1955 Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata
Participations
2013 'The Naked and the Nude: The Body in Indian Modern Art', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 ‘Manifestations VI', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 ‘Manifestations V', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010 'Manifestations IV', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2009 Annual Exhibition, La-Mere, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture, Kolkata
2005 'Manifestations III', organized by Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi at Nehru Centre, Mumbai and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2004 'Manifestations II', organized by Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai and Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 'Manifestations I', organized by Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi at World Trade Centre, Mumbai and Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
1998 '10th Anniversary of Calcutta Painters', Kolkata
1996 5th All India Veteran Artists Exhibition, New Delhi
1984 Tokyo Biennale, Japan
1975 3rd Triennale, New Delhi
1963,64,65 National Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and Kolkata
Honours and Awards
2001 Abanindranath Puraskar, awarded by the Department of Information and Culture, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata
1996 ‘Eminent Painter’, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), New Delhi
2001 Abanindranath Puraskar, awarded by the Department of Information and Culture, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata
1996 ‘Eminent Painter’, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), New Delhi
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Untitled
Watercolour on paper pasted on mount board
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Around the Cross
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