I remember Bimal Das Gupta foremost as a great teacher and a great painter. He was a pioneer of abstraction in India, and everybody loved what he did. The most remarkable thing about his art was the new dimension he gave to landscape painting. He did not go out in the open to paint his abstractionist landscapes, but made all of it in his studio, without any reference. That was the greatness of the man.
Another unique aspect of his art was the abstractionist seascapes that he painted. I don’t know of any other modernist who has painted underwater life in abstraction. I think the presence of water element in his art owed to his Bengali lineage. You see a lot of floating elements in his work. I was very much impressed by this work of Bimal Da that inspired my water-based work as well.
No doubt, he was my guru in this regard even though he was not my teacher at the College of Art, Delhi; I was a student of fine arts while Bimal Da taught at the applied arts department. While I was only a student and he was way senior, we met regularly for conversations on art, at exhibitions, and even otherwise. It was, indeed, very enriching to talk to him, to have him guide a young person like me, and to have profound conversations on art and art practices. I remember him as a very lively, approachable, and encouraging senior.
- Vinod Sharma