About Pradip Pradhan

In India under British Raj, Indian artists were much influenced by the Western art creations. Even ArtGuru Abanindranath Tagore (1879 – 1951) got his early art education from Charles Palmer and Orlando Gilhardi; the two world famous foreign artists. But he did not get his heart’s satisfaction as those foreign arts had no connection with our Indian tradition and culture. Then in India, under British Reign different fields of art creation suffered from a kind of identity crisis. In the midst of such a dim situation, a series of art published on ‘Radha-Krishna’ in 1894 indicated the dawn of a new age of art and culture on our soil. The inner soul of Indian art got a new life becoming drenched with a new flow of artistic spring. Art critics started to call it as “Bengal School of art”, “Neo-Bengal art” or “Nabba-Bangio Gharana”. The main creators of this group of artists were mainly the disciples of Abanindranath Tagore. Among them the most noted were Nandalal Bose (1882 – 1966), Asit Kumar Halder (1890 – 1964), Khitrindranath Majumder (1891 – 1975), K. Venkatappa (1887 – 1965), Sarada Ukil (1890 – 1940), Samarendranath Gupta (1887 – 1964), Manishi De (1906 – 1966) etc. Some other Neo-Bengal artists were Dhirendranath Debbarman (1903 – 1995), Indra Dugar (1918 – 1989), Dhirendranath Brahmo (1924 – 2016), Manillal Bandhapadhyay (1917 – 2002), Dipen Bose (1921 – 1964), Ajay Kumar Ghosh (1938 – 2020) etc. Pridip Pradhan carries that tradition of art creation.

Born in 1953 at Nandigram in Medinipur, Pradip was brought up in the midst of crystal-clean nature, under blue sky. His father, Pashupati Pradhan was a freedom fighter. He started his education from Asadtala Benode Vidyapith. From his early childhood days his artistic bend of mind was very clear and obvious. He was inspired by the rural functional artists and their art creations. The Mrit-shilpi’s creation of idol, the Patuas creating their pictures, the hand-decorated wrappers made by the village women, mud dolls created in the village, the puppet show —– all these folk-cultures seen closely made Pradip’s creative mind brighter and more focused. Once, a beautiful picture drawn by him was chosen for the school wall magazine. It drew the attention of the school inspector and he requested the school authority to give the young boy a special prize. All these made up his mind to be a great renowned artist in future. With school education, he carried on his meditation in art. Now he is living at Champadanga in Hooghly district.

After finishing his school education he got his admission in 1970 in renowned Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata. In 1975 he passed out of the college with his subject ‘Indian Style of Painting and Mural”. Among teachers he got the blessed association of renowned artist Dhirendranath Brahmo (1924 – 2016). Dhirendranath Brahmo himself was a student of the same college under Mukul De (1895 – 1989). He was an artist of the Bengal-School. He was a master artist of water color-wash painting, Tempera art and Mural. From him, Pradip came to know from the core of his heart the Indian Art tradition and how to create Mural. Pradip was one of the most favourite students of Dhidendranath Brahmo. Even after passing out of the college Pradip had a close connection with his ideal teacher as their bondage was of the soul. The teacher showed him the path of art education and Pradip followed him like a Guru throughout his life of an artist. Pradip also got Maniklal Bandhopadhyay (1916 – 2002), as his teacher and Guru for a long time. Pradip plunged in to the Bengal School art more and more with their guidance. He also got valuable suggestions related to his art creation from Ganesh Halui (1936 –). As an artist Pradip always searched for beauty in art creation. After finishing his art education he got a teachers’ training course from Calcutta University. In professional life, he was the teacher-in-charge of visual art section of Medinipur Academy of Fine Arts and Craft from 1976 to 1978. From then on he became a teacher of fine art at Champadanga High School (1978 – 2013). After retirement from service he got a renewed life of an artist with freedom.

With his own paintings he arranged his first solo art exhibition in 1987 at Purba-Medinipur on the occasion of the platinum jubilee of Asadtala Benode Vidyapith school. Then in 2001 in Academy of Fine Arts, his twenty best paintings were exhibited. In the same place another show was organized in 2003 with his twelve heavenly paintings. About this exhibition the famous Bengali newspaper ‘Ganashakti’ wrote “The rural scene in a rainy day is a unique painting. With this painting, lots of songs, poems and thoughts are related and intermingled. The painting is done in Wash style. The boats are floating in the river and kept beside the bank. The flower blooming in the water is a symbol of heavenly beauty. At last comes the story of a lonely girl. She has got a new look with the artistic touch of a renowned artist.” The remark made in the newspaper is the just assessment of the creation. Standing in front of the art, one easily will be lost in the midst of a dreamland.

The present art exhibition is scheduled from 17 December to 23^rd December, 2023 at Kolkata Academy of Fine Arts with Pradip’s retrospective art creations. Here the beautiful essence of nature, the unornamented rural life and the concept of Almighty in spiritual mind —- all these have got lively essence from the artist’s hand. Sree Chaitanya’s birth, Chaitanya in meditation with heavenly dancing pose, Chaitanya; singing hymns of God with raised hands, all these painting related to Sree Chaitanya are the spontaneous expression of artistic creation and spirituality. These paintings give us a reminder of the famous search of beauty in the paintings of Khitindranath Majumder on Chaitanya. No one expect Khitindranath has drawn so many paintings on Chaitanya. I have heard from one of the disciples of Khitindranath that while painting the pictures of Chaitanya, his guru used to sing beautiful songs in a low tone.

Among all of Pradip’s creation, the serene heavenly beauty draws our attention. ‘The Boats’, ‘Bhorer Alo’, ‘Dipping steps’, ‘Jhorer Din’, ‘Pukur’, ‘Dhuadhar’, ‘Badal Dine’, ‘Gramer Drishya’ —- all these paintings of Pradip beautifully depict the rural villages, the mud roads, the green unpolluted, untainted trees, the ponds, the mud huts etc on paper and cloth with water colour. The hidden beauty of nature in the midst of light and darkness seen from his childhood days get expression in his paintings. In addition to these all the different folk-cultures have got beautiful expression in the different paintings. His paintings like ‘Padmabati’, ‘Radharani’, ‘Dipawali’, ‘Krishnakali’ etc reveal the artistic beauty and heavenly glow of female figures drawn by his unique hands. All these are the expressions of youthful glow, enchanting attraction and romantic expression. Another attraction of this show is the experimental art like ‘Kanchan phool’. Here the painting drawn on silk cloth with water colour has become unique with his own creative energy. You may see some of his beautiful creations spread in different places like Netaji Indoor Stadium, Champadanga High School and on the wall of a Shiva temple.

The Artist, Pradip Pradhan has got immortality in his painting which are now available in our country and abroad where in different art galleys those are kept and also in some personal collection. He is honoured with some medals as recognition of his artistic creation. Though with no such earthly gifts one can ever pay respect to true artist. Hope his retrospective art exhibition spanning for near about fifty years will give the spectator’s eyes the soothing sensation and heavenly feelings.