Chronicling the True Bengali – The Art of Lalu Prasad Shaw

New Delhi: Quintessentially Bengali. That in short sums up the oeuvre of 87-year-old artist Lalu Prasad Shaw. Born in 1937 in Birbhum, West Bengal, Shaw depicts the culture of his native land through his famous depictions of the ‘Bibi’ and the ‘Babu’.

Gallery Art Exposure showcases Shaw’s early and recent works in an ongoing exhibition at the Bikaner House, Delhi. The exhibition, which is on till September 24, features works of the master printmaker and artist in graphics, crayon, and tempera. It resonates with both nostalgia and contemporary conversations.

Shaw has worked across mediums. He started with gouache – a favourite of commercial artists for posters, illustrations and comics. Similar to watercolour, gouache, comprising natural pigment, water and a binding agent, is designed to be opaque. Shaw used the medium to deftly capture the Bengali ‘bhadralok’ in all his highly stylised form of daily idiosyncrasies.

Oftentimes, visual imagery and internal identities in Indian art are influenced by other cultures, especially the West. However, Shaw’s art, right from the early formative years, pursues a distinctly Indian focus. His oeuvre famously portrays a variety of people occupied in various pursuits, including romantic dalliances, the Babu’s regular forays to the market to buy fish and vegetables or the Bibi, depicted reading or gazing into space, with often a caged bird by her side.

The themes in Shaw’s paintings also remind one of the modern imagery of Kalighat paintings, characterised by bold colours in matte finish, like Shaw’s gauche and tempera works. The artist himself admitted in a number of interviews that he was influenced by the defined lines and stark colours of Kalighat paintings and the Ajanta cave art.

Somak Mitra, Director, Gallery Art Exposure, says, “Shaw is an artist from a seminal generation of Indian artists whose legacy is truly timeless. His iconic paintings capture and preserve the essence and simplicity of the Bengali middle class from a bygone era. But his multifaceted finesse also extended to distinctive forms like lithography and intaglio printmaking, for which he received long-due recognition more recently.”

When the octogenarian ventured into the world of art in his 20s, he did not receive much appreciation or encouragement. Rather it would always be pointed out to him that he was pursuing something that was ‘worthless and would not amount to much’. Nonetheless, the modern master, who went through economic hardships while growing up, followed his heart and studied art at the Government College of Art, Kolkata, where among others he had yet another master artist – Ganesh Pyne – as a fellow student.

Shaw, who discovered printmaking at the age of 30 and after almost two decades shifted to tempera, is remarkable for his contemporaneity and stylistic expression. Needless to say, he has been a constant source of inspiration for his peers and the younger generation of artists. Ina Puri, curator of the exhibition, says, “When you hear from an artist like Indrapramit Roy – who also teaches painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda – that Shaw was his teacher, I realise the worthiness of Shaw’s influence on the next generation. Even in the present times, he continues to paint and work - indefatigable at 87. He remains an artist young people want to collect.”

Looking for something new and being inspired by it has always been the hallmark of a creative mind. Shaw is no different. Last year, Shaw became the first of the Indian masters to showcase as many as 27 of his NFT (non-fungible token)-certified works in collaboration with Terrain.art – India’s first exclusively blockchain-powered platform. In fact, when this Lalit Kala Academy prize-winner was teaching at the Graphics department of Shantiniketan, he was inspired to experiment with and later master templar painting.

Through the images at the exhibition, one gets an insight into the artist’s practice and his gently satirical approach toward life and its diversity. People can be differentiated by their ethnicity, religion, profession and class, giving rise to a sense of plurality. Deeply affected by political issues throughout his life, Shaw chooses to reflect on his environment with humour and irreverence. The retrospective pays a tribute to the veteran by showcasing the range of his art that is as contemplative as it is humorous.