During a trip to Shillong, Pratap Deb stopped at a roadside stall to buy sliced pineapple. There, he met an elderly woman selling fruits — an encounter that would later inspire one of his canvases. The portrait that emerged was, however, of a much younger lady — “perhaps fascinated by how she might have appeared years ago,” art curator Johny ML writes in a short note accompanying Deb’s painting ‘Poised’ at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre. “The woman gazes toward an unseen figure outside the pictorial frame, a trope often employed by modernists such as Raja Ravi Varma and Paul Gauguin.”
Deb’s early works consist of refined, uniform brushstrokes, while his later pieces show rougher edges. His son, Shubhendu Deb, describes these as distinct phases in his father’s journey. “Between 2017 and 2020, at Lalit Kala Akademi Studio in Garhi, he truly painted his heart out,” Shubhendu recalls. The ongoing exhibition, ‘Unveiled: Pratap Deb. The Artist. His Art. His Journey’, organised by Shubhendu and his wife Valarie, is a token of remembrance and a celebration of the late artist’s legacy.
Legacy in colours
Pratap Deb was born in 1933—he passed away in 2021—in Karimganj, southern Assam, into a family of successful businessmen. But the aftermath of World War II and Partition brought hardships early in his life.. Determined to pursue his passion despite financial struggles, he enrolled at the Government College of Art and Craft in Calcutta. His classmates included future masters like Shakti Burman and Ganesh Pyne.
After an Applied Arts diploma, he turned to advertising before moving to the Ministry of Agriculture, where, at just 27, he became the chief artist. As told by Shubhendu, Deb played a significant role in designing national campaigns including Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan and the Green Revolution. In 1966, he went to the US on a government programme, and was a part of campaigns addressing issues such as population control.
Between ink and oil
The exhibition also features covers of magazines he designed—Extension, Humara Ghar, The Farm and Farm Home, and Accent—while working with the agricultural ministry. A few ink drawings from his trip to the Philippines, the US, and European countries consist of tractors, farmlands, and foreign landscapes created roughly in black. His oil and acrylic pieces evoke a sense of modernism, with subtle hints of Cubism.
Some works hold special memories for the family. Shubendhu says he is particularly captivated by ‘The Unfinished’, inspired by a performance Deb saw in Manila in 1990. The painting portrays a female dancer, with exuberant energy, holding tea lights, with one balanced over her head. The painting is predominantly in blue. Valarie’s favourite is the ‘The Trumpet of Survival’, in which a street vendor standing in the night, carries a bunch of colourful balloons, and sticks of pink candy floss. In one hand, he holds a trumpet-like bugle, ready to blow it. Behind him is a tall gate and a barking dog.
Interestingly, the artist’s signature varies as much as his style. Sometimes it reads ‘Pratap Deb,’ or ‘Pratap’ in Hindi at other times; the initials ‘P.D.,’ or a stylised ‘DEB’ placed along the edge of a corner.
Alongside the exhibition, the panel discussions held at the gallery featured designer Jattinn Kochhar, author Ritika Kochhar, and former cricketer Varun Aaron, and other well-known personalities.