Dhiraj Choudhury, who once called himself ‘an aggressive painter’ for depicting social ills and inequalities of life through his art especially in the 1970s and 1980s, believed that art could play an active role in bringing a difference to society. He is as much remembered for his art as for his kind-heartedness and unflinching support to young artists.
Choudhury was born in Brahmanbaria district of Bengal (in present-day Bangladesh) in September 1936. He was a young boy at the time of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent, which left a deep impression on his mind; his family moved to India after 1947. The pain he felt due to the consequences of the Partition and the social ills that plagued the society thereafter, such as dowry, corruption and other inequalities, spurred the young man to take up painting.
The socio-political environment, in fact, played a major role in informing his visual language. Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya, who curated ‘Dhiraj 75’, a multi-city exhibition celebrating the artist’s 75th birthday in 2011, said that contemporary environment of the nation resulted in a style that is ‘uniquely Dhiraj’. ‘Dhiraj 75’ was held at Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Kolkata.
In the late 1970s, his work was shown alongside that of Salvadore Dali and Joan Miro in Geneva. Throughout his career, Choudhury created drawings, paintings and experimentative work such as sculptures in ceramic and wood. One of his last experiments was in wood, which he called ‘burnt relief painted media’. He described it as: “I worked on the wood, charred it, then painted over it. I wanted to experiment and challenge myself.”
Choudhury taught at New Delhi’s College of Art from 1961 to 1996. He passed away in Kolkata on June 1, 2018.