Akara Art

JOGEN CHOWDHURY

Akara Modern

1939

Born in 1939 in Faridpur, Bengal, Jogen Chowdhury studied at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata, from 1955 to 1960, followed by a stint at L'Ecole Nationale Superior des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1967 on a French Government Scholarship.

Chowdhury’s art philosophy can be described as having successfully married traditional imagery with contemporary style and a blend of an urbane localized Bengal. Chowdhury remembers the trauma of the partition of India and the subsequent displacement of his family from a small village in the erstwhile East Bengal to the city of Kolkata. The turmoil, human subjugation, and the constant struggle to live the ‘Eden’ life became a recurring theme of his work. He has even been acknowledged to be the master of unbroken line, which are emotive and used to express the character of a person. Such imagery is created upon distortion, a technique that has had the most significant impact over Jogen’s work.

Chowdhury held a few solo shows in, Kalakriti Art Gallery at ICIA, Mumbai (2008); Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2007); Gajah Gallery, Singapore, Gallerie Foundation for Indian Artists, Amsterdam; and also at the Fine Art Resource, Berlin. In 1966, Chowdhury was awarded the Prix le France de la Jeune Peinture in Paris and received an award at the Second Biennale of Havana, Cuba, in 1986.

The artist lives and works in between Kolkata and Santiniketan.