Born in 1921 in Dinajpur – a small town in undivided Bengal, now in Bangladesh,
Haren Das took a diploma in Fine Art from the Government College of Arts and
Crafts, Kolkata. He specialized in graphic arts, besides studying mural painting.
Immediately after graduating in 1938, he joined as a lecturer in his alma mater.
He also enrolled for a two-year teacher-training course, where he opted to study
graphic art, woodcuts, lithography and etchings. Das is considered to be one of
the finest graphic artists India has ever produced, especially of woodcuts.
Das introduced line engraving and etching into the art curriculum of the
Government College of Arts and Crafts, thus laying the foundation for print
making and graphic art education in India. He once told an art writer, “Just as a
poet or musician expresses his emotions and his interpretations of life through
words and sounds, an artist visualizes the phenomenal world around him in the
receptacle of his mind and expresses it in color and form. But an artist who is
obsessed with woodcuts sees life through a special point of view and must work
with light and shade, composing them into a picture and adapting his medium
to the presentation.”
A winner of the several national awards, Das held several one-man shows and
group shows across India. His works are in the collections of the National Gallery
of Modern Art, New Delhi, the Calcutta Art Gallery and many other state galleries.
In 1950, he published a book of engravings titled `Bengal Village in Wood`.
Haren Das died in Kolkata in 1968.
