Jahar Dasgupta was born on May 31, 1942 in Jamshedpur, India. His childhood spent in Jamshedpur where at the small age he used to draw elephants, dogs, trees on the floor. Later their family moved to Dhanbad due to his father Narendranath Dasgupta who worked in TISCO in an executive post left the job and joined Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research institute as a scientist. At the age of 9 he draw Stalin face and Ma Sarada Devi on the wall. This took the attention of his parents and they decided to send him in some art school.
Education :
Dasgupta was admitted to Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan in 1960. He studied in Kala Bhavana, the fine arts faculty of the Visva-Bharati University, and took his primary lessons under mentors like Nand Lal Bose, Ramkinkar Baiz and Benode Behari Mukherjee. In 1964 Dasgupta obtained diploma from Kala Bhavana.
Career :
Dasgupta’s first job was an art teacher in a non Bengali school in North Calcutta where he served for many years. In his struggling time, he also took many art tuitions to run his family. Simultaneously, he continued to participate art shows regularly.
His first solo exhibition was organised in Birla Art and Culture Kolkata, West Bengal. He developed his own style of expression since the beginning of 1970s. Dasgupta had developed his individual style in paintings and drawings. Previously he has painted in oil medium and now he mainly works in ink, pastel and acrylic colour.
His others solo exhibitions took place in Laxmana Art Gallery, Lalit Kala Academy, Chitrakoot, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta. He exhibited his first solo in abroad in 2004 at Gallery Hansmania (Norway) and later at Club Bangladesh (Sweden). Dasgupta also participated many group exhibitions throughout India and abroad.
Jahar Dasgupta was the former President at Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata where he currently lives and works. He is also working as a principal of an art academy – Birla Academy of Art and Culture.
Achievements :
Dasgupta was the recipient of the Paricharan Sarkar Memorial Award. He was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts in 2000 by Rotary Club of Madhyamgram.
