If there’s one thing that the last four decades of painting have taught senior artist Niren Sengupta, it’s dedication. As this former principal of College of Art, New Delhi, presents his solo exhibition, titled 40 Years, 40 Works, he reminisces about the journey that took a lot of patience and perseverance for him to develop from an artist with rudimentary knowledge to an artist of repute. “Through these 40 years, my works have been influenced by many places, people, circumstances and my spiritual self and the exploration continues. In the initial years, my mother and her pure love towards me inspired me to paint figures of benevolence. During this phase, I invoked motifs from the animal world, birds, contemporary life, picturesque sightings, honey and spiritual existence, which continued in the years to follow,” says the artist, who has always found inspiration in the wisdom of the Ramakrishna Mission.
Born in United Bengal in 1940, Sengupta believes that a lot depends on the environment one paints in. ‘‘A space that inspires you will lead to more fulfilling results. When I was working on the Sage Series, I paid several visits to the Ramakrishna Mission as that enhanced my spiritual knowledge. The calm, disciplined and guru-shishya ambience helped me capture my imagination and translate it on canvas. The results were beautiful back then, and will continue to be so, as long as the fundamentals of art don’t change,” he says.
Date Ongoing till September 30 Time 11 am to 7 pm Venue Art Bull Gallery, Lado Sarai