MANINDRA BHUSHAN GUPTA (1898 – 1968)

Manindra Bhushan Gupta was born in 1898 in the Autshahi village of Dhaka district in the erstwhile undivided province of Bengal.  In 1909 he joined the residential Brahmacharya Ashram of Santiniketan.  He joined Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan in 1921 where Nandalal Bose was his guru.

Rabindranath was requested by the Ananda College of Sri Lanka, to send an artist to take charge of the newly opened Fine Arts department. Manindra Bhushan was eventually selected and he left for Colombo in February 1925, to join Ananda College as head of the drawing department. He remained there for three years, upto 1927.

Manindra Bhushan while in Sri Lanka travelled extensively. He trekked long distances and visited many archaeological sites and Buddhist Monasteries. He was greatly inspired by the art tradition of Sri Lanka as well as the scenic beauty of the country. He copied the frescoes at Sigiriya Polonnaruya and visited Anuradhapura and Kandy.

He held exclusive exhibitions at Mumbai in 1924, at Rangoon in 1934 and at Kolkata in 1938. He was the first Indian artist to hold a solo exhibition in Rangoon. He presided over the art section of the eighth session of the Probasi Bongo Sahityo Sammelan held in Nagpur in 1929.

Manindra Bhushan was a serious writer of art history, travels, excursion and biographical sketches of artists. An album titled “Impressions of a Pilgrimage to Kedarnath and Badrinath” was published by him in 1933 containing 12 linocuts. Later Chitrangshu Institute of Art, Kolkata, published another album with 25 graphic prints and drawings by the artist. Other notable books on arts written by him include Shilpe Bharat O Bahir Bharat (India and outer India in Arts) and Sinhaler Shilpa O Sabhyata (Art and Culture of Sinhal). He was closely associated with Rabindranath. As a teacher at the Government School of Art, Kolkata, he left a long lasting influence on the students of his time.

He passed away in February 1968.