Eric Hubert Bowen (1929–2002) was an Indian artist known for his

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

. Born in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

(now known as Prayagraj),

United Provinces of Agra and Oudh The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1921; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces (UP), by which the province had been ...

(present-day

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

) in 1929, he received a national diploma in art from

Delhi Polytechnic Delhi Technological University (DTU), formerly known as the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) is a state university in Rohini, Delhi, India. It was established in 1941 as Delhi Polytechnic. In 1952, it started giving degrees after being affi ...

(now known as Delhi Technological University) in 1959. He, along with Paramjit Singh, founded Group Unknown, a group of young artists and sculptors based in Delhi. He studied art in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

from 1962 to 1965 through a scholarship by the Italian government. He was a part of the

Group 1890 The ''GROUP 1890'' exhibition was held from 20 to 29 October 1963 at Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi, India. It was the only exhibition of the artist collective 'group 1890', hence the only existing record of the group's exhibi ...

exhibition held in the year 1963, but was not present personally because of being in Italy. Bowen received a state sponsorship for study and travel from the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

government in 1977, and settled with his wife in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. He worked on "The Right to Life in Peace", a series of twelve paintings based on concerns about wars and violence, in 1985. The series includes quotations from

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

Sankichi Toge Sankichi (written: 三吉) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer *, Japanese surgeon *, Imperial Japanese Navy admiral *, Japanese poet and activist {{given name Japanese masculine gi ...

, etc. He received a grant from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for this series and it was exhibited in the

United Nations Office at Geneva The United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG, french: Office des Nations Unies à Genève) in Geneva, Switzerland, is one of the four major offices of the United Nations where numerous different UN agencies have a joint presence. The main UNOG ...

. Bowen is one of the subjects of the book ''Memory and Identity: Indian Artists Abroad''. He died in the year 2002. Bowen's artistic style was initially inspired by construction and architecture, consisting of geometric structures like lines, two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces. However, during his stay in Oslo, he switched to a ''

tantra Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...

''-inspired style which includes tribal and folk art elements and consists of triangular and spherical shapes. His works are part of the collections of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, and the

National Gallery of Modern Art National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Eric Delhi Technological University alumni 1929 births 2002 deaths Indian male painters 20th-century Indian painters Painters from Uttar Pradesh 20th-century Indian male artists