RABIN MONDAL

Rabin Mondal, was born in 1929, in Kolkata. Rabin Mondal is an Indian artist who was a founding member of the Calcutta Painters. He lived and worked in relative obscurity until retrospective exhibitions of his work in Kolkata, New Delhi and Bombay brought him to India's national attention in 2005. Rabin Mondal graduated in Commerce from Calcutta University in 1952. His first formal education in art was at the Indian College of Art and Draughtsmanship, Calcutta. He continued his artistic studies at the Ashutosh Museum, Calcutta University. In 1964 Rabin and what is now known as the "Group of Eight", (which consisted of Nikhil Biswas, Prokash Karmakar, Bijan Chowdhury, Gopal Sanyal, Bimal Banerjee, Mahim Rudra, Gunbritt Svensson and Mondal himself) formed the Calcutta Painters. Though some of Mondal's best canvases have an obvious cubist influence, stylistically his work has been predominantly expressionist, a reaction to the tormented humanity that surrounded him in Calcutta, and the tragic events of his formative years. Lately, he has evolved a personal eclectic style full of throbbing vitality, with thick impasted applications of painted and scribbled, incised lines. He uses rich, saturated colours and one encounters mask-like heads and portraits in dominantly tribal and folk style form. He lives and works in Calcutta.