November 17 , 2023
04:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Mahalaxmi Racecourse
Edited by Soumik Nandy Majumdar and Jesal Thacker the book 'Shadow Lines: Tracing the Journey' is a magnum opus publication comprising the lifelong works by the distinguished artist Jogen Chowdhury, till date. Retrospective in nature, this publication is primarily a chronological survey of his oeuvre, and includes brief textual insights by critics, art-historians, editors of this book, and the artist himself. The book contains, both reprint and new, seminal essays written by eminent writers like K. G. Subramanyam, Pranab Ranjan Roy, Geeta Kapur, Erwin Neumayer, Phyllis Granoff, and R. Siva Kumar. For this session, Jogen Chowdhury will be in conversation with Soumik Nandy Majumdar followed by the launch of the book by Kiran Nadar of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
Jogen Chowdhury is a distinguished Indian artist born in 1939 in present-day Bangladesh. He completed his art education from the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta in 1960 after which he went to Paris on a Cultural Exchange Scholarship for higher education at the Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux Arts and the Atelier-17 In 1965. Following his education he worked as a textile designer with the Weavers’ Service Centre, Chennai, as a Curator of the Art Collection of Rashtrapati Bhavana, New Delhi, after which h, he moved to Santiniketan as a teacher in the Painting Department, Kala Bhavana in 1987. Although he formally retired as the Professor and Principal of Kala Bhavana in 1999,he continues to be an Emeritus Professor. Since 2014, he has been engaged as a nominated Member of the Rajya Sabha. Chowdhury has showcased his work extensively in India and abroad and has received numerous national awards and international recognitions. Presently, he divides his time between Santiniketan and Kolkata.
Soumik Nandy Majumdar is a faculty member in the Department of History of Art at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan where he has been teaching the history of Indian and East Asian art at under-graduate and post-graduate levels for over 25 years. He graduated from Santiniketan in 1990 and completed his postgraduation in Baroda in 1992. He has taught as visiting faculty at reputed institutes like N.I.D (Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Vijayawada), IIT-Kanpur, FTII, Pune and SRFTI, Kolkata. Majumdar has published articles and essays in various national and international journals and magazines and has contributed as an art critic to a number of catalogues of contemporary art shows. He has curated significant shows such as, ‘8 Bengal Masters: Miracles of Existence’ at Musee des Arts Asiatiques de Nice, Nice, France on behalf of Akar Prakar, in May 2015, ‘Compelling Presence – Jogen Choudhury Retrospective Show’ at NGMA, Bangalore and ‘Into the half light and shadow go I – Jogen Chowdhury’, co-curated with Jesal Thacker, New Delhi and Mumbai, 2023.
