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Indra Dugar was born in 1918 in Jiagunj, a town on the banks of the Hooghly River in Murshidabad, West Bengal. His family, Jains, who had migrated from Rajasthan a couple of centuries ago, held art in high regard. He was introduced to painting at an early age by his father Hirachand Dugar (1898-1951), a respected artist and one of the first students of Kala Bhavan at Rabindranath Tagore's Vishwa Bharati University in Santiniketan. According to Dugar, his father's role in shaping his artistic career was vital. "My father, Hira Chand, was the melodious music. I am just a very faint distant echo [...] He is a key that would, as it were, open the small lock of my humble treasure chest." (Artist statement, S. Sarkar, 'Indra Dugar: A Profile of a Painter', Art etc., June 2012, accessed October 2015)
Although he was entirely self-taught, Dugar regarded his father's alma mater as his own, having lived in Santiniketan as a child and spent time with the artists there, particularly his father's teacher, Nandalal Bose. Reminiscing about the time, he noted, "In my childhood I lived in Santiniketan with my parents. Through my father, I met his mentor Nandalal Bose. When Abanindranath Tagore came on a visit, my father took me along to see him. Occasionally he would take me to Rabindranath Tagore. I frequently met his fellow students like Dhirendra Krishna Deb Verma [sic], Ramendranath Chakraborty, Benodebehari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. I grew up in an electrifying atmosphere." (Artist statement, S. Sarkar, 'Indra Dugar: A Profile of a Painter')
Speaking about Dugar, Nandalal Bose, who became quite close to him over the years, wrote "It has given me great pleasure to discover in the son of an artist father quite good promise of another artist. From what I have been able to judge of Sriman Indra's works, I consider he has in him real artistic talents." (Shri Indra Dugar Abhinandan Samaroh Smarika, 1989, unpaginated)
While Dugar experimented with several media, including oil paints, Bose strongly disapproved of it; his strength lay in the delicate landscapes he executed in watercolour. Usually painted en plein air during his travels around the country or on his visits to his hometown of Jiagunj, these mature works established him as one of the country's finest landscape painters. "The images are like runways that he uses to lift off into the azure sky of his imagination. His paintings depict and do not depict, reflect and do not reflect, the actual scene. Through his bold and dancing brush strokes he reaches out behind and beyond what is on view [...] These works are not photographs, tourist posters [or] picture postcards that a traveller sends home. There are hints of inner feelings, a supple form beyond the realm of the familiar scene." (S. Sarkar, 'Indra Dugar: A Profile of a Painter')
Apart from his works on paper and silk, Dugar was commissioned to paint several murals around the country, including at Parliament House in New Delhi and for the Jain temple in Calcutta. Apart from his one-man shows in India, his work has been exhibited in Paris in 1946, and in various cities in West Germany in 1964. Credited with having renewed the Bengal School tradition of painting with fresh life and energy in the 1960s, when it was flagging, Dugar has won several awards for his work.
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF INDRA DUGAR
INDRA DUGAR (1918-1989)
Dispersing Gloom
Details
INDRA DUGAR (1918-1989)
Dispersing Gloom
stamped, signed and dated in Bengali (lower right); further inscribed, dated and signed '468 30.5.65 DISPERSING GLOOM Wash on Whatman Paper 9.8" x 17.2"' (on the reverse)
wash on paper
9¾ x 17 1/8 in. (24.8 x 43.5 cm.)
Executed in 1965
Dispersing Gloom
stamped, signed and dated in Bengali (lower right); further inscribed, dated and signed '468 30.5.65 DISPERSING GLOOM Wash on Whatman Paper 9.8" x 17.2"' (on the reverse)
wash on paper
9¾ x 17 1/8 in. (24.8 x 43.5 cm.)
Executed in 1965
Provenance
From the Collection of the Artist
Thence by descent
Thence by descent
Brought to you by
Umah Jacob