Gopal Ghose (5 December 1913 – 30 July 1980) was an Indian painter from West Bengal. In 1943, he was one of the founders of the

Calcutta Group The Calcutta Group was a group of modern artists in India, formed in 1943 in Kolkata. It has the distinction of being the first artistic movement of its kind in both Bengal and all of India. Though short-lived – the group disbanded in 1953 � ...

, perhaps the first group of modernist painters in India.

Life and career

Ghose was born in Calcutta, West Bengal on 5 December 1913. After obtaining a diploma in painting from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Jaipur in 1935, he trained in sculpture at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Chennai in 1938, where he studied under Debi Prasad Roy Choudhuri. Initially influenced by the

Bengal School 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 ...

, Ghose was drawn to the pictorial vocabulary developed by European Expressionists and Cubists to depict nature. Ghose reworked the genre of landscape painting, investing it with expressionistic qualities. He travelled extensively within India to paint his landscapes. Ghose was adept with several mediums, and known especially for his ingenious handling of watercolour. He also worked with tempera, pen and ink, and brush and pastel. He was one of the founder members of the well-known Calcutta Group (1943). Ghose taught at the Indian Society of Oriental Art, in Kolkata from 1940 to 1945 and then joined the faculty of the Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur (then affiliated with the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

), where he taught architectural drawing. He was also the joint secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata. His works can be seen at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, 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 ...

, New Delhi. He died on 30 July 1980.

Exhibitions

* The Chromatic Image - Gopal Ghose at Akar Prakar, New Delhi. (2017) * Gopal Ghose: A Jubilant Quest for the Chromatic at NGMA, New Delhi in association with Akar Prakar. Curated by Sunjoy Kumar Mallik (2012)

References

1913 births 1980 deaths Artists from Kolkata University of Calcutta faculty 20th-century Indian painters Bengali male artists Indian male painters Painters from West Bengal 20th-century Indian male artists {{India-artist-stub

Life and career

Exhibitions

Further reading

References