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Artist: Gopal Sanyal ( India, 1933 - 2006 ) - (Visit Sanyal's Portfolio at absolutearts.com)
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Main Category: Painting
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Genres: Contemporary Realism, Contemporary Asian Art
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Biography: A teacher of the Indian College of Art and Draughtsmanship, Gopal Sanyal is a recognized painter of Calcutta. But one is surprised to know to what extent Gopal, though so talented, struggles for his existence as an artist. If Gopal had no benevolent friends to provide him with painting and drawing materials, he would have left his métier long ago. He is in poverty; and this poverty makes him a bitter yet a powerful artist. He is married and has a daughter. His wife understands him. So Gopal is enviable at least on two counts- his contentment with wife and his vigor with brush and paint or pen and ink.
Gopal Sanyal devotes himself more to drawing than to painting because pen, ink and paper are cheaper than brush, paint and canvas. He does not avoid painting just because he is more at home with drawing. The painting he has executed may be a few in number but they speak of Gopal Sanyal’s passion for colour and his extraordinary skill in hading paint. Gopal Sanyal surely produces concords with pigments but his compositions are by no means pretty. He violently distorts forms to express his feeling through them. He sees everything around him, not in their usual shape. The naiveté of the folk art in forms and the Cezannean sophistication in métier makes his painting not only a coalition of the East and the West but also a combination of the past and the present.
One of the favourite forms of Gopal Sanyal is the horse. He studies it in its natural grace in representational style; sometimes idealises it with distortions here and there, and sometimes even embellishes with linear ornamentation. In each his drawings and paintings, where the distortions are always deliberate, Gopal demonstrates of his sound knowledge of anatomy.
In his latest drawings, it appears, that he rather leans a bit towards representation of the forms but in composing within a rectangular frame he sticks to his earlier rhythm, balance and spatial division.
I am sure that all who saw Gopal Sanyal’s paintings before, will agree with me on viewing his current exhibition, that the artist is now more equipped with technical know-how and is drifting slowly but steadily from emotionalism to ornamental fantasia.
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Exhibition History: Diploma in Fine Arts from the Government College of Art & Craft, Calcutta in 1956-57
Ex-lecturer in Fine Arts in the Indian College of Arts & Draftsmanship, Kolkata.
Founder member “Calcutta Painters” , Kolkata , Paper-setter & Examiner, Rabindra Bharati University, Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata.
An Interview on Durdarshan.
Documentary Film on my works & life.
ONE – MAN SHOWS:
1956, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1972, 1973.
GROUP SHOWS:
1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973.
Regular participant in major All India Exhibition. Received award from All India Fine Art & Craft, new Delhi 1971.
AWARDED:
Awarded the National Scholarship in painting 1959-60 for 3 years, by the Government of India.
Award received from Chief Minister of West Bengal Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee.
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Collections: The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, Punjab Museum, Chandigarh.
Chicago University, Chicago, Nataraj gallery, Taxas, U.S.A., Dr. A. Sen Gupta, Humburg, West Germany, Cecelia Harwich, California, U.S.A., DR. Robert C. Mayfield, President, World Arts of Austin, Pritish Nandy Communication, Birla Academy of Art & culture & Many Private Collector in India & Abroad.
LIST OF EXHIBITS:
Shadows and coloured fishes.
Birdseller.
An old temple.
The last journey.
Lover
White hog
Flute player’s family.
White horse
Flute player & 15 Drawings.
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