One of the most original and outstanding painters of
contemporary India, Prokash Karmakar confirms in his works the rich inheritance of Indian
art and the dynamic spirit of the modern age. Born in Calcutta in 1933 he has lived
through wars, famine, communal riots, and partition, and his powerful brush has caught the
anguished search of his age for meaning and direction in bold lines and rich colour. His
magnificent distortions offer a profound insight into the hidden matrix of experience.
Prokash’s father Prohlad Karmakar, a pioneer of modern
printing in India, died early leaving Prokash to fend for himself. Prokash had a hard life
in his boyhood and youth – he found shelter in station platforms, city parks,
brothels and pavements – and all this experience enriched his creative imagination.
In spirit he remain a bohemian whose head is warms and generous but whose head in unbowed
to any authority.
In 1968 Prokash get an Academy Award of a Fellowship which
took him to Paris to study the Master Painters Creations and other great country of
artistic activity in Europe. He gradually achieved in his style a rich and original
aesthetic fusion from Eastern and Western art while retaining in every on his strokes the
authentic stamp of his individuality. He has exhibited in innumerable solo and group
shows. His paintings have been acquired for their collection by the Modern Art Gallery,
New Delhi, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta, Rabindra Bharati University,
Calcutta, Allahavad Museum, Allahabad, U.P., Lalit Kala Akademi, Lucknow, U.P., Art
Heritage of India, New Delhi, and by many governments and private collections throughout
the world.
He is one of the most powerful artist in India. His
landscapes are unparalleled. It has the true essence of India, and … at the same time
very modern. His figures his lines, bold distortions are simply magnificent. He himself is
now an Institution and many young contemporary painters are following his path.
