Nirode Mazumdar

Nirode Mazumdar (May 11, 1916^[1] - September 26, 1982^[2]) was an Indian painter from the first generation of Indian modernists, and a key member of the Calcutta Group.

Life and career

Nirode Mazumdar was the younger brother of renowned Bengali novelist Kamal Kumar Majumdar,^[3] their younger sister Shanu Lahiri (1928-2013) was also a noted painter and art educator.^[4]

Mazumdar had his first education under Kshitindranath Majumdar, student of Abanindranath Tagore, at the Indian Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta. After he finished his course Mazumdar was awarded the Norman Blount Memorial Award for his artistic skill.

Along with the new generation of modernists such as Pradosh Das Gupta, Rathin Maitra, and Paritosh Sen, Majumdar founded the Calcutta Group in 1943. His first solo show in Calcutta was organised by the Calcutta Group in 1944. On a French government scholarship, he studied engraving in Paris at the academy of the French artist Andre Holland. In 1951, he participated in a group show held at the India House in London, and worked for sometime as the curator of the art gallery there. In 1955, Nirode returned to Paris. He had a solo show at the Gallerie Barbizon in Paris in 1957. He lived in Europe for ten years, befriending many writers and artists such as Constantin Brâncuși, Georges Braque, and Jean Genet.

Mazumdar returned to Calcutta in 1967. He painted large canvasses, gradually moving towards Tantric themes in his work, and often exploring a single concept over a series of paintings. His work remained rooted in the pictorial tradition of Bengal, which he harmonized with European modernism.^[5]

Works

• Mazumdar, Nirode, and Rāmaprasāda Sena, translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. 2000. Song for Kali: a cycle of images and songs. Calcutta: Seagull Books.

References