To mark the centenary year of the famed sculptor Prodosh Das Gupta and the 80th year of sculptor Sarbari Roy Choudhury, a landmark exhibition containing more than a hundred specimens of the works of the duo, is being showcased for the first time at the Lalit Kala Akademi Galleries.

This event has on view iconic works by the two artists forming the centrepiece of the display. Known for their ingenuity in confabulating sculptures around the plasticity of form, the show derives its name, 'Contours and Volumes' from this essential start point of the creative force behind the sculptures. The bronze works range across a variety of dimensions from classical human-figure sculptures as in Prodosh Das Gupta's 'Silent Woman; and 'Surya Mukhi' to that of table-sized formats in the works of Sarbari Roy Choudhury. In all of these works the artists have given full rein to a sculptural idiom born of western and Indian norms of art making. This approach has placed the works into a genre of historicity where the tenets of academic realism, cubism and abstraction, are examined through sculptural creations. While the human body form is representative of humane values and love in the works of Prodosh Das Gupta, in the musically inspired works of Sarbari Roy Choudhury, such as the bronze head of Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, one can discern a sculptural ability of depicting music visually.

Sarbari Roy Choudhury (1933 – 2012) 

Born Ulpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Graduated in Sculpture from the Government College of Art & Craft, Calcutta and Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda. 

During his study tour in Europe Roy Choudhury visited Paris and Italy, and was able to meet two great masters, Alberto Giacometti and Ossip Zadkine, who appreciated his small bronzes. He studied sculpture at the Academia dei Belle Arti, Florence, Italy, interacting with Marino Marini, Henry Moore. Back in India, he joined the Department of Sculpture at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. He was a Connoisseur of Hindustani and Carnatic classical music and collected rare albums and recordings. 

He has participated in the Paris Biennale in 1965. has been shown widely in India by major art galleries and under the Ministry of Culture along with the Lalit Kala Akademi in 2012, and in 2013 at the Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.  

His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and at The Madam Shenue Museum, Florence, Italy and in many private collections across the world.

A major publication on his work was released by the Lalit Kala Akademi, Ministry of Culture, India in 2008.

Prodosh Das Gupta (1912-1991)

Born in Dacca, Pradosh Das Gupta graduated from the Calcutta University in 1932. He took up sculpture in the same year and received his first training in the subject under two distinguished teachers, Mr. H. Roy Choudhary and Mr. D. P. Roy Choudhary at Lucknow and Madras. He had the distinction of being awarded Guru Prasanna Ghose Travelling Scholarship by the Calcutta University, enabling him to study sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, under Mr. W. Macmillan R. A. during 1937-39. He studied also for some time Ecolede Grand Schaumere, Paris. His studies in the academic tradition for which the Royal Acdemy is famous and his constant touch with the more liberal trend of Paris helped him in gaining a broad and balanced view on sculptures. On his return to India in 1940 he set up a studio in Calcutta.

In 1950 Das Gupta went twice to the South East Asian countries to gain a knowledge of the arts of those countries and to assess for himself the extent of influence of the Indian Art there. In the same Year he was appointed Reader in sculpture in the university of Baroda. But in 1951 he was called back to join the post of Professor of sculpture in the Government College of Arts and Craft, Calcutta. In 1953 he represented India in the International Sculpture Competition held in London.