RABIN MONDAL

BEGINNINGS

He was born in Howrah, West Bengal. Son of a mechanical draughtsman, running a family business of manufacturing milling machinery. 1941 Injured his knee and confined to bed and took to drawing and painting during convalescence. World War II casted a pall over his childhood as he was taken to a remote village to recover. 1943 Bengal Famine casted a deep impact on him. 1946 Communal riots broke out in Calcutta and he was affected greatly by mass slaughter, looting and arson. 1948 Drew inspiration from the exhb. of French Art (Van Gogh, Czanne, Degas, Matisse etc.) 1955 Joined Railways, Calcutta. 1956-58 Worked as an art director for two films, Calcutta. 1961 Travelled extensively in South India. 1964 Forms Calcutta Painters Group with Bijan Chowdhury, Gopal Sanyal, Nikhil Biswas, Prokash Karmakar, Ronion Roodra, Gumbritt and Bimal Banerjee. 1969 Elected Joint Secretary, Calcutta Art Fair. 1970 Edited `Drawings by Fourteen Contemporary Artists of Bengal

EDUCATION

• 1947 Passed his Matriculation examination, I.R. Belilios Institution.
• 1948 Admitted to Govt. School of Art and Craft, Calcutta, but could not continue due to financial difficulties.
• 1952 Bachelor of Commerce, Vidyasagar College, Calcutta University, Calcutta.
• 1956-58 Attended evening classes, Indian College of Art and Draughtmanship, Calcutta.
• 1959 Completed his Art Appreciation Course, Ashutosh Museum, Calcutta University, Calcutta.

EXHIBITIONS

• 1955 Joint exhb., Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta.
• 1961 First solo exhb. of painting, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta.
• 1963 Solo exhb., Arts and Paints Gallery, Calcutta.
• 1963, 64, 65 National Exhb. of Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
• 1964, 69 Group exhb., AIFACS, New Delhi.
• 1965 Solo exhb., Artistry House, Calcutta.
• 1966 Solo exhb., Priyodarshini Gallery, Calcutta.
• 1968, 72 Group exhb., Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan.
• 1969, 71, 85 Exhb., Calcutta Information Center, Calcutta.
• 1970 Exhb., Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta.
• 1971, 73 Solo exhb., Gallery Chemould, Calcutta.
• 1971, 73, 81, 82, 85 Group exhb., Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
• 1972, 75, 78, 83 Group exhb., Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta.
• 1972, 74, 76, 78, 79, 80, 83 Group exhb., Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay.
• 1974, 77 Solo exhb., Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi.
• 1975 3rd Triennale, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
• 1975, 79 Group exhb., Shridaharani Gallery, New Delhi

COLLECTION

• Chicago Don Town Gallery, USA.
• National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.
• Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
• Ministry of Industries, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
• Art Heritage, New Delhi.
• Gallery Chemould, Mumbai.
• Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi.
• Tata Engineering and Locomotive Works, Jamshedpur.
• Tractors India Limited, Kolkata.
• Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata.
• Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai.
• Katayun Gallery, Kolkata.
• Birla Academy of Arts and Culture, Kolkata.
• Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata.
• La Mere Gallery, Kolkata.
• LTG Gallery, Kolkata.
• Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai.
• Delhi College of Art, New Delhi.
• Genesis Art Gallery, Kolkata.
• Madhavan Nair Foundation, South India.
• The Times of India, Mumbai.
• Charukala Parsad, Deptt. of Information and Cultural Affairs, Govt of West Bengal.
• Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.
• Aurodhan Art Gallery, Pondicherry.
• DURGA Contemporary Fine Art Gallery, Mumbai
• Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi.

AWARDS

• 2002 Received Abanindra Puraskar, Kolkata.
• 2004 `Rabin`, documentary film on him was directed by Mr. Buddhadeb Dasgupta.
• 2005 Book `After the Fall: Life, Time & Art of Rabin Mondal`, was written on him by the scholar Mr. Santo Datta.

STYLE

Rabin Mondal`s Cubo-Futuristic angularities of form and his arrangement of pictorial space in relation to them helped him evolve a series of highly individuated human figures. His repertory of humans is essentially experimental in origin. They came out of his growing abhorrence towards man`s moral decay in all spheres of life. He has imaginatively used the thick pigment for the gem-like incandescence of the stained-glass effect we see in George Rouault.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1953-54 Appointed as teacher in local high school. 1987 Joined as Lecturer in Visual Art Deptt., Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta.

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