Amitava Das

Amitava Das was born in New Delhi in 1947 and graduated from the Delhi College of Art in 1972. He was appointed to be a lecturer at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in 1974. Best known for his existential vision of human forms, Das has drawn influence from the philosophies of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and the poetry of Jibananda Das and Shakti Bandopadhyay. 

His earliest works depict calmer scenes, before moving to canvases with scenes of the violence and greed of modern times. Das works with a variety of mediums including watercolours, oils, and pastels, to portray his thoughts and feelings evoked by his observations of life. His works primarily explore Man as both creator and destroyer, fusing the natural and artificial to display their interdependence. 

In the 1970s, Das co-founded the New Group, a Delhi based artists collective. He received the Lalit Kala Akademi National Award in 1976, and later went on to receive a fellowship from Germany to study Advanced Graphic Design in 1989. Since his first solo exhibition in 1969, he has participated in several shows both in India and internationally. Some of his most notable exhibitions include the Bharat Bhavan Biennale in Bhopal (1987); and a solo show at Galerie FIA in Amsterdam (1997). Das remains a keen observer of the world around him, continuously translating his thought processes into paintings. He lives and works in New Delhi.