Bijan Choudhury (1931–2012) was a

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

-born painter known for his activities as part of the Calcutta Painters in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Choudhury was born in Faridpur,

(now

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

) in 1931. He moved to

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

where he studied at the Government College of Art and Craft, but because of his Marxist beliefs he was expelled before he could graduate. He returned to Bengal and graduated from the Dacca Art College (now the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

). Choudhury was one of the artists that formed the Society of Contemporary Artists in 1960. In 1964 together with Nikhil Biswas, Prakash Karmakar, Rabin Mondal, Jogen Chowdhury and Dharaj Chowdhury he founded the Calcutta Painters to break from the traditions of the

Bengal School of Art The Bengal School of Art, commonly referred as Bengal School, was an art movement and a style of Indian painting that originated in Bengal, primarily Kolkata and Shantiniketan, and flourished throughout the Indian subcontinent, during the Britis ...

. In the late '70s he became head of the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship. Choudhury died on 16 March 2012. After his death, an exhibition of his paintings was arranged by the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts at the Bengal Gallery in May 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhury, Bijan 1931 births 2012 deaths 20th-century Indian painters People from Faridpur District Indian male painters Bengali male artists Artists from Kolkata Painters from West Bengal 20th-century Indian male artists