Arup Das, a Delhi based figurative painter, is a noted muralist. The 'text' of his paintings has always been informed by a keen awareness or man's socio-historical being. He has enviable skill in handling both aqueous medium and oil, and he is particularly happy and inventive when working in mixed media. His human figuration, expressively stylized, has something monumental about it even when painted in small format. Although from the illusionist spatial recession, the pictorial space in his paintings interprets the figures in terms of fine overlaps or colors in a wide range of tones. Arup Das often suggests an advent of the Messiah and hope of redemption.

Born in West Bengal in 1927, Arup Das graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta. Since the late fifties he has been living and working in New Delhi. During 1960-68, he was a member of the council of the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi, and went to study in the UK on a British Council fellowship in 1972.

In 1966 he was commissioned to do a mural for the Indian Exhibition organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in New Delhi. Next year, he did another mural for the Indian pavilion in the 'Expo-67' in Canada. Since his first solo show in 1954 at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society in New Delhi, he had 22 solo shows in India and abroad till the year 1994, which included two shows in Japan (1992-1993), London (1972) and Montreal (1978).

From 1961 to 1993, he participated in 24 important group shows including venues in India; Sao Paolo (1961), Brazil and other Latin American countries (1965); Rumania and Poland (1973); Yugoslavia, Brussels and Warsaw (1974); Tehran, Budapest, Damascus, Prague and Sofia (1979); and West Germany (1993).

A recipient of the National Award of 1957 from the Lalit Kala Akademi, he won prizes at All India Art Exhibitions of the AIFACS in 1954, 55, 56; and-the President's Silver Plaque in 1957, gold medal and awards in All India Art Exhibitions held in Hyderabad in 1956, 57, and 58; and prize in the Railway Exhibition organized by the Government of India in 1969.

His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, Museum of Modern Art, Punjab, Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi, Punjab University, and in the private collections in New York, Warsaw, Prague, Cairo, Russia, Japan, France, U.K., Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Submitted January 2014 by George Lee whose source was www.contemporaryart.com/arup das.htm

My works are about human beings, but I like to put them in their historical and social context."



Born in West Bengal in the year 1924, Arup Das graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta.

Arup Das is a figurative painter and an acclaimed muralist. Human figures occupy the central position in his paintings. Das attempts to portray man as a social and historical being, placed within the framework of his cultural and natural environment. He is as comfortable painting with oils as he is with watercolours. He is at his productive and innovative best when he is working with a combination of media. He employs a wide variety of shades to depict his human figures.


"There is a mingling of pictures and a blurred effect in my work which facilitates interpretations of my creations," he says. A recurring theme in Das's paintings is the coming of the Messiah with its message of eternal hope and ultimate salvation for mankind.


Das's canvases are a judicious blend of ideas that are timeless but told in a language that is pertinent to our times.


He has held 22 solo shows in several countries including Japan, the UK and Canada, and has participated in 24 group shows in India and abroad. He won the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1957 and the President's Silver Plaque in 1957.


He lives and works in Delhi. His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Modem Art, New Delhi, the Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi, and the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi.


Arup passed away in 2004.