Biman B Das, is one of the most accomplished modernist sculptors and artists of his generation currently practising in India. A pedagogue, mentor and builder of art institutions, he headed the Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata as its Principal for over a decade following a fairly long stint as a lecturer in sculpture at the College of Art in New Delhi. Currently Chairman of the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, he is associated with some of India’s cultural ministry initiatives besides other arts institutions.

Biman’s diligently executed work entails a fine blend of conventional and unconventional materials and modes entailing a rooted sensitivity within an open frame. Inspired by mythology, his work maintains a broad universal appeal, with no direct link to any rigid doctrinal ethos. The independent stand-alone status of his sculptures flows in a fine assimilation of figuration and abstraction, myth and metaphors, realistic and expressionist aura, echoing a mingling of the classical and folk art traditions with contemporary markings and sensibilities. There are deities and icons, people and places, male and female forms, murals and installations, art and craft, as well as ideas and objects that figure in his exquisite sculptures. The wide spectrum of Biman’s sculptures created in his own inimitable style, come alive in substantive series of iconic forms including deities and goddesses, Buddha and his emblems, Radha and Krishna, Naik and Nayika, Tree Nymphs and murals, portraits and people, besides abstract metaphoric representations. The material he uses includes stone, wood, clay and vitrified terracotta etc., though bronze remains his primary medium.

– Sushma K Bahl