Personal Information

Dear Friends,

Some ask me about my objective in life . I am neither a good speaker nor a good writer . If my paintings have expressed something at all, this is my message. Human life is full of weal and woes , sufferings and blessings , and my life is no exception . An artist is to make his or her sorrows beam in light of brightness . Success in such expression is our attainment and bliss . I have had to struggle hard to reach the present position along a long path of life. I entered the battlefield with thread and needle and indomitable courage . I had been inspired by indigenous tradition , exercises of rural art by my mother . I desired to paint the life I observed in the battlefield and those whom I met there as my saviors , in all their moments and aspects of characters , in various hues and forms . Sometimes , my work , surpassing the object-person and his surroundings , have become universal ..

I did not surrender to darkness nor did I give it indulgence in my creativity , because I know that at the proper moment , the lamp less night is flooded by the pious of the dawn . My gratitude to those who lent me courage in my struggle , wished me well and endowed me with blessings know no bounds . There is constant warfare in the realm of creator , and no art becomes real art if there is no “ faith ” . I wish , I cherish that “ faith ” in my life forever..

Artist Rekha Chakraborty : 25th April 1933 - 24th July 2006.

The first decade of Smt. Rekha Chakraborty’s life had been a familiar pattern of childhood spent in an ordinary Bengali household, followed by marriage and the expected role as a home-maker. As a young mother burdened with all the routine domestic chores, Rekha Devi had to work outside the home to supplement the family income. But despite many social pulls and pressures which slowly but surely transformed a “ settled woman into a stereo type docility, Rekha Devi did not let her mind relapse into passive mediocrity. The small flame of creativity that could so easily have died after she left her parental home, miraculously survived..

Rekha Devi had grown to love Art and beauty literally at her mother’s lap , by learning to replicate some of the beautiful needlework crafted by her mother I the old Bengali tradition or “ parampara”. As her creations emerged into public gaze over the years with ever increasing excellence in developing her unique art form, the growing visibility of her distinctive persona as an artist with a very remarkable talent, led to the predictable conflict with the established pattern observed in society: male authority typically conjoined with woman’s expected submission . The very fact that Rekha Devi did not submit to this archaic societal norm and to fate is itself a tribute to the triumph of the artist’s soul over a mundane but normal longing for security and comfort..

Over the years she has own numerous awards and held somany exhibitions in India and abroad. Her exquisitely embroidered portraits adorn art galleries spread far and wide all over the world : from Tagore Centre in London , Lenin Museum in Moscow , to art collections in Hanoi and Havana . Whether her theme concerns renowned personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa, or an unknown protagonist such as the tortured soul in “Fear” , a glimpse of nature as in “ Avenue” or a man-made feature as “Fort”, her vivid creations impress our senses as perfect likeness to paintings in colour..

It is indeed difficult to realize that each superb portrayal of the essence of a subject, the beautiful blending of light and shade and the rich weave of colours, are all wrought with thread and needle and not been instrumental in reviving a long lost art to its full glory..