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Lot Essay
Biren De came from a distinguished Bengali family from Calcutta. As a student of a medical college and later moving on to the Government School of Art, De found the environment of the art college rather stifling. However, he remained there from 1944 to 1949 and the only art teacher he found inspiring was Zainul Abedin.
John Terry was Head of the Architecture Department, Delhi Polytechnic, in the 1940s and had met De earlier in Calcutta. Upon hearing that De had abandoned his art college two months prior to graduating, Terry sent the train fare for De to come to Delhi. In early 1949 De moved to Delhi and later became a faculty member at the Polytechnic. The other key figure who was instrumental in De's artistic career was the vice Chancellor of Delhi University, Sir Maurice Gwyer, who commissioned De to work on a large mural at the university's new convocation hall. De's reputation as an artist and a portrait painter grew over the years and very quickly he became one of the most popular artists working in the early 1950s in New Delhi.
Biren De writes, My approach to art is exploratory as a child, I very often used to run away from home, just to be able to go somewhere, to see and know about things myself. The same runaway child probably still persists in me. Each blank canvas I take up extends to me the eternal call of adventure and I go, riding the vehicle of paint and brush.
(Biren De, 'Why Do I Paint' - IV, The Illustrated Weekly of India, Delhi, p. 55)
John Terry was Head of the Architecture Department, Delhi Polytechnic, in the 1940s and had met De earlier in Calcutta. Upon hearing that De had abandoned his art college two months prior to graduating, Terry sent the train fare for De to come to Delhi. In early 1949 De moved to Delhi and later became a faculty member at the Polytechnic. The other key figure who was instrumental in De's artistic career was the vice Chancellor of Delhi University, Sir Maurice Gwyer, who commissioned De to work on a large mural at the university's new convocation hall. De's reputation as an artist and a portrait painter grew over the years and very quickly he became one of the most popular artists working in the early 1950s in New Delhi.
Biren De writes, My approach to art is exploratory as a child, I very often used to run away from home, just to be able to go somewhere, to see and know about things myself. The same runaway child probably still persists in me. Each blank canvas I take up extends to me the eternal call of adventure and I go, riding the vehicle of paint and brush.
(Biren De, 'Why Do I Paint' - IV, The Illustrated Weekly of India, Delhi, p. 55)