Haren Das

Haren Das took a diploma in Fine Art from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata. He specialized in graphic arts, besides studying mural painting. Immediately after graduating in 1938, he joined as a lecturer in his alma mater. He also enrolled for a two-year teacher-training course, where he opted to study graphic art, woodcuts, lithography and etchings. Das introduced line engraving and etching into the art curriculum of the Government College of Arts and Crafts, thus laying the foundation for printmaking and graphic art education in India. Some of his posthumously organized exhibitions include ‘Manifestations IV’, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2010; The End of Toil. Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi 2008; Manifestations II, organised by Delhi Art Gallery, Mumbai & New Delhi, 2004.

At a time when oil painting ruled consciousness and prints were considered inferior, Das chose to work solely with printmaking. Taken from densely engraved or sparsely cut wood blocks, Das’ prints are both technically and artistically superior. A dexterously crafted equilibrium of black and white, at times washed with thin layers of colour, detailed renditions of objects and elements, simplicity of composition and petite format are all characteristic features of his prints, whether in wood engraving, etching, dry point or linocut. No viable art market existed in India till the Sixties, with few takers for prints in its narrow horizon. Das, however, continued with his passion, exhibiting extensively in India and abroad in the Fifties and Sixties. Haren Das’ prolific wood engravings and woodcuts capture detailed vignettes from rural Bengal life, portraying people’s everyday life and labour. His deep identification with the hardworking rural folk and the urban poor stem from a natural empathy, as well as a nostalgia for his lost, idyllic home of pre-partition Bengal.