Personal Information

Debashis Chakraborty (b. 1962) turned to painting with all seriousness right from the last stage of his school life. It was his elder brother Shankarnath, a distinguished poet and writer today, who noticed Debashis' talent for drawing from his very boyhood and inspired him all along. But it was not easy for the boy of a middle class family to continue studies in an art school at that time. He had to earn his expenses by different ways when he entered the Indian Art College; his struggle of life became more intense when he was in his advanced stages there. After securing his Diploma in 1987 he took training of an Art Teacher from Calcutta University, and taking part thereafter in an appreciation course of Central Government (a course conducted by Victoria Memorial) he started his painter's life.

It was a strange coincidence that he came in contact with German Expressionism right at the early stage of his student life in the art college. The combination of emotional intensity and self-denial depicted in those paintings attracted him, and he started drawing anti-figurative aesthetic of German schools keeping on Futurism, the Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism. A lot of books on painting came later as a wonder to the young man from his elder brother's desk. He was taken aback when he saw in those albums the aura of a rebellious, anarchtic in those highly idiosyncratic and to some extent nihilistic images. Abstract expressionism, bearing its many stylistic similarities to the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky had its evolution in the hands of Paul Klee, Emma Kunz, Lenbach, Emil Nolde and others, and Debashis got fully captivated by their paintings.

Not only the above artists. Both Indian and Western painters haunt this quinquagenarian tremendously even to this day. To name a few, they are Ramkinkar Bej, Nikhil Biswas, Meera Mukherjee among other Indian painters, and most importantly Jackson Pollok, Willem de Kooning, Max Beckmann, Mark Rothko, George Grosz, Paula Becker and other American or European artists on the Western side. In the beginning of his life he was attracted to the drip painting of Jackson Pollock who used synthetic resin-based paints called alkyd enamels, which is thought to be one of the origins of the term 'action painting'. Willhem de Kooning, the Dutch American abstract expressionist artist's abstract still-lifes characterised by geometric or biomorphic shapes and strong colours, or his black and white abstractions also had his impact on Debashis. He liked Max Beckmann, a German versatile artist who actually rejected both the term 'expressionism' and the movement; he rather succumbed to the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), an outgrowth of Expressionism that opposed its introverted emotionalism. His contemplated mysticism and theosophy in search of the "Self"was one which drove Debashis to find the hidden spiritual dimension in his subjects.

The American painter Mark Rothko of Russian Jewish descent included dark, moody, expressionist interiors, as well as urban scenes, who attracted him especially for his representation of mythological subjects in rectangular fields of colour and light. George Grosz, originally from the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group during the Weimar Republic in Germany was an Expressionist and Futurist painter who also charmed him for his popular illustration, graffiti, and children's drawings. Paula Becker from Worpswede in Germany is perhaps the most important German abstract expressionist who fascinates Debashis most, who, using bold forays into subject matter and chromatic color choices introduced the world to modernism at the start of the twentieth century along with Picasso and Matisse. Her influence on Debashis can be viewed from the cover he designed for the Bengali translation of Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke.

A conscientious artist cannot thrust aside his own country, her nature and the responsibilities for his fellow men. An Indian painter, Debashis has constantly pulled out all the stops to find his roots in his own soil. He drags his legacy from Ramkinkar Bej, who, as a key figure of Contextual Modernism responded to the natural enthusiasm for life, and took great interest in human figures, body language and made use of a human drama in the main. Debashis' orientation has been created on the basis of Modern Western art and pre- and post-classical Indian art; he has collected his painting materials advantageously, and worked combining the skills of a modeller and a carver, taking expressionist dimensions, which are filled with force and vitality. He is equally sensitive to Nikhil Biswas's dark and mysterious figures in thick black ink or fine lines. He is also fascinated by Meera Mukherjee who shows the use of Bengali calligraphy on the surface. Playfulness and whimsy are another dimensions that he derives from Meera.

Debashis does not, as a matter of fact, fill his canvas with fields of colour and abstract forms, he rather hits his canvas with a dynamic gestural expressionism. His mind has developed in the context of diverse, overlapping sources and inspirations. He succumbs to an expressive art of profound emotion and universal themes, the most of it being shaped by the tradition of European Surrealism, a movement that he transforms into a new style fitted to the Indian post-Independence mood of anxiety and trauma. He stands as a protest against social and political upheaval that constantly break the integration and harmony of the Indian nation.

Passed 5 yrs. Diploma course from INDIAN ART COLLEGE in 1987.

Passed T.T. Art course under Calcutta University in 1988.

Appeared Art Appreciation Courseat Victoria Memorial in 1988.

Working as a professional artist since 1988 in Kolkata.