Contemporary Artist: Sumanto Chowdhury

Sumanto, tell us about your early years.

I was born in West Bengal. When I was small, I was fascinated by my older brother who drew quite well. At school, I began to take drawing lessons from a teacher by the name of Chandan Das. I started doing watercolors and an opaque style of painting popularized by Nandalal Bose.

Later, when I decided to complete high school at Santiniketan and then attend the art school, my parents supported my decision. My grandfather encouraged me a lot too. He was a self-taught artist who made portraits as a hobby, often painting people at his workplace. I used to love looking at these portraits — sometimes I tried to copy them! No one from our family had become an artist, so he wanted me to become one.

After I finished high school, I applied for admission to the art school but did not get in for two years. I continued to stay in Santiniketan and train under one of my teachers, Suhas Roy. He introduced me to many mediums, and I worked hard to sharpen my technical skills. I would often tag along with the first-year students when they went for their outdoor sketching exercises. That helped me tremendously. Finally, I got admission to Santiniketan in 1999!

What was your experience at Santiniketan like? Were there any teachers who took you under their wing?

I made the most of all the opportunities at Santiniketan. When I was in my final year of my painting specialization, the artist and printmaker Rini Dhumal from Baroda came to Santiniketan for six months. She advised me to go to Baroda to do my post-graduation and guided me on the kind of preparations I needed to make. Pinaki Barua, who taught Printmaking, was of the opinion that I must move out of West Bengal, and he suggested Hyderabad as very talented printmakers like Laxma Goud and DLN Reddy were teaching there. Discussions with both these senior artists convinced me that it was important for me to spread my wings and explore the world beyond Santiniketan.

That was a major turning point in my life. I was admitted to the S.N. School of Art at Central University in Hyderabad. I enrolled in the two-year Master’s program in Printmaking, where artists DLN Reddy and Shyam Sundar were still teaching.

Ref: https://laasyaart.com/