Page 403 - Manifest September 2024

Lot No. 237

JOGEN CHOWDHURY

b. 1939
UNTITLED
14.5 x 16 in (36.8 x 40.6 cm)
Pastel on paper
1988
Signed & Dated: Bottom Right
` 20,00,000 - 25,00,000 | $ 24,390 - 30,488
Provenance: Property from a collection based in
Kolkata. Artwork was acquired by the present owner
directly from the artist

Jogen Chowdhury, born in 1939 in a village near
Kotaliparha, now part of Bangladesh, began his
formal art education at the age of 16. He enrolled at
the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Kolkata
in 1955, completing his studies there in 1960. He
then went on to further develop his skills at the
École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he earned his
master’s degree. After spending nearly a decade in
France, he returned to India in the late 1960s.
Chowdhury’s unique style is characterised by
contorted lines that define the soft, almost fluid
figures he is renowned for. His artworks often depict
a variety of characters, both men and women, in
mysterious and suggestive scenarios, featuring
provocative postures and hypnotic gazes. The
agile, elongated forms of his figures evoke fluidity,
often in dream-like spaces. Many of his portraits
are set against a deep black background, creating
a dramatic contrast that enhances the figures’
contours. Chowdhury’s mastery of linework is
deeply rooted in the rich tradition of Indian art, and
his meticulous use of lines has become a defining
feature of his work.