Partha Pratim Deb

Partha Pratim Deb has a great sense of individual humor and a sharp wit. Using various media such, oil on canvas paintings, drawings on postcards, large bas-relief assemblages on board, as well as delicate yet powerful ink on paper works. His works evoke an impressive complexity through simplicity, akin to Paul Klee’s ‘taking a line for a walk’ drawings. Deb possesses qualities of a master draftsman, for example a single line, straight and horizontal, can become the horizon, the hull of a boat, the division of two dimensional space or a roof top

Partha Pratim Deb

Partha Pratim Deb has a great sense of individual humor and a sharp wit. Using various media such, oil on canvas paintings, drawings on postcards, large bas-relief assemblages on board, as well as delicate yet powerful ink on paper works. His works evoke an impressive complexity through simplicity, akin to Paul Klee’s ‘taking a line for a walk’ drawings. Deb possesses qualities of a master draftsman, for example a single line, straight and horizontal, can become the horizon, the hull of a boat, the division of two dimensional space or a roof top. Partha Pratim likes to take a comic view of the human condition and aspirations. This amalgamation of humor, social reality and sensuality along with a creative playfulness is visible in all of his works. This is one of the many reasons why his work is praised both in India and abroad and his work is included in the collections of major museums including the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and the Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi. Deb is an important figure within Indian contemporary art not only for his artistic output but also for his pedagogical input. Born in 1943 Deb completed his education in Fine Arts and Craft from Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan followed by a post diploma from the Faculty Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda. He went on to become the Dean and Professor in painting at the Faculty of Visual Arts, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata and has written numerous papers on art education. A native of Tripura he now lives and works in Kolkata.

He started crossing the invisible line between frontiers of Painting and Theatre through his installation art projects while he has made and continues to make a powerful mark on the Art direction of Eastern Indian films, television and theatre, winning many national awards. He is the benchmark for book cover design for contemporary Bengali literature, having designed and illustrated over 300 titles.

His auto-biographical work Amar Chobee Lekha (How I write my Art) contains an unique eastern view of Art theory & practice in the Contemporary space. He has published over 20 books on Art, Film, Design and Poetry. He continues to contribute regularly to numerous local journals & dailies on Art.

His Art is in private, corporate and museum collections in UK, France, Hong Kong, USA and India.