Window

Shyamal Dutta Ray

The thread of connection in Shyamal Dutta Ray’s work is his focus on scenes and objects of absolute ordinariness. Without fanfare, he presents perhaps a couch; a collection of scattered stones; a hanging sheet; or a small window in a nocturnal cityscape as simple mediations.

“Window”, executed in 1968, is evident in his complex, experimental manipulation of the plate. He keeps the scene from becoming entirely representational while also suggesting the familiarity of a single lit window on a darkened urban street. He has commented about his imagery "The imagery...comes mostly from my personal experiences. It is the visual world and its influences on me, that I try to reveal..."

Printmaker and painter Shyamal Dutta Ray was born in Ranchi, Bihar, India, in 1934. He studied at the Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata between 1950 and 1955 and completed his diploma in painting. He taught briefly at the Jagadbandu Institution in Kolkuta from 1954 to 1956.

In 1968, Dutta Ray co-founded the Painters '80 Group and, in 1999, he became a member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, Kolkuta. He began his career painting with oil paint but changed to watercolor and became one of the most accomplished watercolorists of modern Indian art.

Shyamal Dutta Ray died on 19 May 2005.