408 - Jogen Chowdhury (Indian, b.1939) Untitled (Face) signed u.c. in Bengali and dated '2020' l.l., pen and ink on postcard (image 14.6 x 9.7cm) Provenance: Exhibited: 'In my own language - Jogen Chowdhury', Debovasha, Kolkata, Saturday 8 March - Wednesday 9 April 2025; acquired by the present owner from the above, accompanied by a signed certificate from the artist; a private collection, Surrey. Footnote: Jogen Chowdhury was born in Daharpara village, in the Faridpur district of present-day Bangladesh. Following Partition, his family moved to Kolkata, where his artistic education began. He entered the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, in 1955 and graduated in 1960. During his student years, he produced sketches recording the lives of displaced people in the city, including refugees gathered at Sealdah railway station. Executed with swift, often stark black lines, these early drawings document an experience of displacement that would remain an important undercurrent in his work. In 1965, Chowdhury travelled to Paris on a French Government scholarship, studying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and at William Hayter's 'Atelier 17' until 1967. He returned to India in 1968, moving to Chennai, where he worked as a textile designer at the Weavers' Service Centre. In 1970, he joined the Calcutta Painters group. His move to New Delhi in 1972, when he became Keeper of Art at Rashtrapati Bhavan, coincided with the development of the distinctive visual language for which he became known. His ink, pastel and mixed-media works of this period are characterised by sinuous, unbroken contours and dense cross-hatching, creating figures of unusual physical and psychological intensity. The human figure, frequently the female form, became a principal vehicle through which Chowdhury explored sensuality, vulnerability, social observation and melancholy. In 1987, Chowdhury left Delhi and moved to Santiniketan, where he joined Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, as a teacher of painting. The move marked a significant change in his artistic language. The dense cross-hatching and sculptural modelling of his earlier works gave way increasingly to a bolder, freer line and a simplification of form and composition. Drawing upon the rural environment of Santiniketan and elements of Bengali folk and scroll-painting traditions, Chowdhury developed increasingly flattened and stylised figures, often animated by bold contours, abbreviated marks and vibrant colour. In works such as the present drawing, this later graphic sensibility is distilled further: the figure is reduced to an accumulation of expressive lines and angles, with cropping and restraint taking precedence over full, naturalistic representation.