ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chintamoni Kar, one of the foremost modern sculptors of india, was born on 19 april 1915 in kharagpur.
He trained initially in sculpture with Giridhari Mahapatra, a traditional Oriya sthapati or temple-carver,
and learnt painting under Kshitindranath Mazumdar at the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta.
His exposure to Western art in Paris in 1938-39, however, transformed his outlook, where he studied at
the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, and at the atelier of Italian sculptor Victor Giovanelli.
Kar’s subsequent disenchantment with the Bengal School was followed by ten productive years in
England, during which he made his award-winning sculpture Skating the Stag, 1948, displayed at
the 14th Olympic exhibition in London. He would return to Europe later to work on the conservation
of paintings at Musée du Louvre, Paris, and at the Institute Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels, in
1960-61.
Back in India, he served as principal
of the Government College of Arts
and Crafts, Calcutta, from 1956-73.
Equally at ease with the academic as
well as abstract styles, and various
mediums, Kar experimented with
forms, fusing concepts and technique
into an amalgam of convention and
sophistication, of myth and modernity.
