Paintings of Amal Nath Chakladar

Jogen Chowdhury

Amalnath Chakladar, ‘Amal da’, was one year senior to me in our Govt. College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. When I was in the first year in 1955, Amal da was in second year. Ganesh Pyne, Debiprasad Saha, Prakash das; all were his classmates. I still remember, Amal da, a very quiet personality, tall, gentle and soft spoken, coming down from upstairs, while going to canteen, in third year. When his classmates like Ganesh da, Debi da, Prakash da opted for Western Painting, Amal da opted for Indian Painting for his study.

The sudden demise of Amal da is a great loss for Bengal Art Fraternity as well as in Indian Art scene. He was a very sensitive artist, and a man with a golden heart.

I was always an admirer of Amal da’s paintings since he started working in watercolour and tempera on paper as a student of Indian Painting Dept. of Govt. College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. We are fortunate that, since his college days he was passionately engaged in his creative pursuit over the last several decades and has been able to contribute substantially in the realm of art of painting in Indian style. He was a remarkably sensitive and original artist and different from other painters whose practice belongs to the same school. For example, we find that number of artists of Indian school of painters are strict followers of Nandalal Bose or his students, having very strong decorative lines and monotonous figurative renderings with less human sensibilities. Whereas I find Amal da’s works very different and original. Even a traditional historical subject gets transformed with grace, subdued colour, distortion and decorative form with creative impulse. I think as a whole, Amal da’s works of art are serious and significant in the present context of Indian art. It is a pleasure to look at his paintings and to enjoy them as a feast to our eyes.

Jogen Chowdhury, Alumnus of Govt. College of Art & Craft , Kolkata 1960 and subsequently from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 1967. One of the most eminent painters and educationist Jogen Chowdhury worked as a curator at Rashtrapati Bhavana from 1972 and later moved to Santiniketan and attached with Kala Bhavana from 1987 as a professor and Principal. He is still attached with Kala Bhavana as Professor Emeritus.