Download Press Release (PDF 38 K)
March 16, 1998, New York - Bose Pacia Modern presents an exhibition of recent paintings by
Arun Bose. The Show will run from April 25 through June 27. Press previews will begin on April 13. The gallery is located at 580 Broadway, 2nd Floor, in SoHo. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 12-6 p.m. and by appointment. A reception with the artist will be held on Saturday, April 25 from 5-8 p.m. The public is invited.
Unlike language and literature, visual perception is universal and cross cultural. This perception, allows visual art to be understood with an immediacy unparalleled in other forms of art. The art of Arun Bose is non-narrative, non-linguistic and non-interpretive. It is pure visceral, virtuoso, visual impact. It is delivered by a highly trained and gifted hand, guided by an emotive and sensitive eye and contemplated by a precise, immaculate mind. It is undeniable that this mind and its contained memories are in their essence Bengali. Bose derives his principal inspiration from the voice of Bengal, India's poet laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. Indeed, as Bose paints in his New York studio, he is entirely alone with his memories of his India, his Bengal, his Calcutta and of the age-worn, crowded flat where he first learned to paint at 12A Sagar Dutta Lane. Glimpses of that India and that flat can be seen throughout the exhibition. By the early 1960s, 12A Sagar Dutta Lane developed into an influential gathering place for many of the young generation contemporary artists of the Calcutta Group. According to art historian Sundaram Tagore, the Calcutta Group is credited with the introduction of international modernism to the art of 20th Century India.
Bose's canvases are meant to create mystery, to invoke the mood of a moment captured: sunlight shining on an open window, shadows of birds perched on a balcony, delicate cracks on a concrete wall, all create that mood. Though his paintings invariably evoke thought and emotion, when he paints, he does not narrate a story. "I only paint what I remember about a moment, what I can visualize in my mind. As I paint, I am driven primarily by color as a bull is driven by red." As discussed by Marilynne S. Mason of The Christian Science Monitor, "Bose's paintings emanate elegance and technical skill while depicting the quiet, serene joy in the visible mysteries of daily life."
Considered one of the most eminent artists of post-Independence India, Arun Bose is now Professor of Fine Art at Lehman College, New York. An early recognition of Bose's talent came in 1962, when he was awarded a French government scholarship to study at the Ecole Nationale Superior des Beaux Arts and to work at the Atelier 17 in Paris under the guidance of Stanley William Hayter. In 1968, Bose arrived in New York under the prestigious John D. Rockefeller III Fellowship and has remained here since. Bose was most recently featured in the 1997 landmark exhibit, "Colours of Independence" at New Delhi's National Gallery of Modern Art, which showcased 50 of post-Independence India's most prominent artists. Bose has had numerous exhibitions worldwide including the III Paris Biennale, the IX Sao Paulo Biennale, the 1989 British Miniature Print International and two solo exhibitions at Weintraub Gallery, New York. His work is included in many important private and public collections.