Lalu Prasad Shaw

Lalu Prasad Shaw completed his Diploma in Painting from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata in 1959. Shaw has exhibited extensively in India and abroad since 1956, and his works have been a part of prestigious shows such as ‘The Print: Matter in Matrix’, Gallery Latitude 28 at Sridharani Gallery, New Delhi (2020); ‘Babu and Bibi’, solo show, Gallery 7, Mumbai (2017); ‘Looking In’, solo show, Galerie 88, Kolkata (2011-12); ‘Graceful Silence’ and ‘Sepia Notes’, solo show, Art Musings, Mumbai (2011 and 2007); ‘The Myriad Minded Artist’, solo show, Gallery Sanskriti, Kolkata (2008); ‘Painting’, solo show, Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata (1995); 2nd Asian Art Biennale hosted by Bangladesh (1984); Norwegian Print Biennales (1978 and 1974); 7th Paris Biennale (1971); 2nd British Biennale, London (1970). He has received numerous awards such as All India Graphic and Drawing Exhibition, Chandigarh (1981); Award for Graphic Art and Drawing, India (1978); Birla Academy Award for Graphic Art (1976); National Award in Graphic Art, India (1971); West Bengal Lalit Kala Academy Award for Graphic Art (1959). After graduation, Shaw taught art for 18 years covering painting in watercolour, pastel and clay modelling in various schools of West Bengal. Later, he taught graphic art at his alma mater and eventually moved to Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan. Despite training in Company School art, traditional Kalighat pats and Ajanta cave paintings, Lalu Prasad Shaw evolved his distinctive style to work in watercolours and oil. Though he would describe himself as a painter, Shaw took a liking to printmaking when he was 32 years old and mastered the genre of graphic arts. This fascination with printmaking started in 1967, when he joined the ‘Society of Contemporary Artists’, where Artist Sanat Kar introduced him to graphic prints and Suhas Roy who had returned from Paris, taught Shaw the techniques of etching. He was also influenced by an exhibition of graphic prints from Czechoslovakia which had come to Kolkata. This exhibition inspired him for the strong and bold use of black and white. Starting with geometric forms, Shaw started experimenting with form, tonality, texture and dimensionality in his prints. He worked constantly both in etching and lithography and under the able guidance of Somnath Hore, redesigned the department of printing at Kala Bhavana. Etching and lithography, as part of Shaw’s journey enriched not only Bengal’s, but the entire nation’s printmaking scenario. Thus, Shaw kept printing and several modes of painting side-by-side, experimenting in both abstraction and figuration firmly believing in the ‘journey’ of discovering ways to depict the image. The artist lives and works in Kolkata.