A student of the Government College
of Art
& Craft in Calcutta, Sunil
Das would later also study at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in
Paris, and with William Hayter and Krishna Reddy at Atelier-17, also in Paris. Known for his iconic drawings
of bulls and horses, Sunil Das painted across several oeuvres, each one
distinctive and to which he brought his singular vision. F. N. Souza once said
about Sunil Das: ‘His paintings are often about death and horror… [He is] a
master of the horrific in art.’ Sunil Das’s images of the bulls were inspired
by his observations during a trip to Spain. And the horses were from, if not at
Calcutta’s racecourse, then at the stable of Calcutta’s Mounted Police, where
the artist spent his time observing and sketching them. One of India's
important post-modernist painters, Das
rose to prominence with his drawing of horses. "I must have done 7000
horses between 1950 to 60," he says. "In 1962, I went to Spain, where
I was fascinated by the bull fights."
His flawless drawings capture the speed, power
and energy of the animals. They became symbolic of the energy, aggression and
power of modern times and of his own untamed youthful spirit and a sense of
liberation.
In his own words, " "To prevent myself from producing the same kind
of work, I keep altering my vision. From the day people begun to see me as a
painter, a huge responsibility fell upon me, particularly to respond to the
feelings of the people at the grassroots level who are also my viewer, as also
to delve deep into realities of life around me."
Sunil Das emerged on the Indian art
scene as a painter with an astonishing repertoire of technical and formal
capabilities. In his subsequent works, whatever the subject, Das poured himself
out on canvas in an obsessed mode of working. He never hesitated while
experimenting with techniques, mediums and styles, charging his images with new
ideas. Das has won medals and awards, including from the state government and
the Lalit Kala Akademi, and has been part of juries and art bodies in India,
France and Brazil.
Das joined Government of India's
Handloom division, Ministry of Textiles. He was inspired by the force and the
strength of the moving horse. His works revolve around Man-Woman relationships,
Woman in her sexual empowerment and In her loneliness. He had around 88 solo
exhibitions across the world including Paris Biennale. He is the founder member
of Society of Contemporary Artists.
Sunil Das came from a middle class
family and his father was just a small businessman. After completing school, he
decided to become a painter and joined a local art school. "I am a good
sports man," he says. "I like things which have a lot of rhythm and
energy."
He doesn't ever use photographs or
models for his painting. "I do a sketch before I start painting. I always
struggle with colours and shapes, until they fall to desired pattern. Like a
music conductor, I summon all my music instruments to play and orchestrate an
aesthetic unit out of various experiences." He does not confine himself to
using brush or pen while painting, and often paints with the palms of his hands
or with his fingers. Sunil Das' paintings have also been influenced by his study
of sculpture at Santiniketan, Kolkata, and his study of graphic art in Paris.
His paintings have a kind of structure and rigidity that one would typically
find in sculpture and in the etchings of graphic art.
Sunil Das's paintings not only express
the physical attributes of his subjects but also their associative ones along
with the vibrancy and resonance towards the mind of his own audience. Every
once in a while he paints human beings, but his depiction of the human anatomy
is skewed, to a point that it almost borders on macabre surrealism. For
example, his series on women with mysterious, tantalizing eyes - all oil on
canvas, the portraits convey, in various forms including the erotic, the
pressures women are subject to.
Hardly ever painting in loud or warm
colors, Sunil Das uses soft brown, mauve and white in the background to bring
out the drama of life. He blends talent with hard work. He works by suggestion
and minimalism. Quite absurd in form, his paintings are morbidly fascinating.
"I delve a lot on man's inhumanity to man," he used to say.
In a personal discussion before
exactly a decade, he was expressing his emptiness about Tantric Expression. But
at the same time he was very excited about working with the God-Goddess series.
But he was more into speed and dynamics. In Forbes magazine Kishore Singh wrote once (may be just a week
before Sunil Das's Death) with a command and justified fact, "Das,
be it through his bulls or horses, captures their restless temperament in a
series of short, flowing lines that seem to arrest them in motion. The
testosterone-inducing quality of his horses is steeped in their masculinity;
their untamable personality vividly rendered through a suggestion of neighing
heads and startled eyes."
Sunil Das (4 August 1939 – 10 August 2015)
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