Created by DemetriaMunro
Last edited March 29, 2026


Gobardhan Ash
Born
1907-08-05
Begampur


Occupation
Painter



File:Atul Bose Gobardhan Ash Jamini Roy Percy Brown Atul Bose.jpg
Standing third row second from right – Gobardhan Ash. Seated middle row from right second Percy Brown and third Jamini Roy. Front row from right fourth Atul Bose at the Government College of Art & Craft 1929
File:First Exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1933.jpg
Standing from left: Abani Sen, Gobardhan Ash, Bimal Dey, Jahar Sen, Ardhendu Chatterjee, Haridhan Dutta.Sitting from left: S.N. Dey, Atul Bose, Amiya Basu at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata First Annual Exhibition, Kolkata -1933

Gobardhan Ash (5 August 1907 – 22 December 1996) was an Indian artist and an early modernist as per the art critic Sovom Som.[1][2][3][4] Ebrahim Alkazi[5] states that "Gobardhan wielded considerable influence as an artist in the 1940s". He co-founded the Art Rebel Center in 1933 and was a member of the Calcutta Group. He was mentored by and close to the artist Atul Bose.[6] Gobardhan was employed as the Chief Artist at the Indian Institute of Arts and Industry in Kolkata in 1946 for a period of two years and subsequently employed from 1953 as a Senior Teacher at the Indian Art School of Kolkata.[7][8] Ranjit Hoskote specifically identifies Gobardhan's 1948 - 1951 period wherein Gobardhan "focusses on creating a style similar to various idioms within pattachitra into a consciousness that is clearly aware of cinema and animation".[9]

Education

Gobardhan Ash had initially joined the Government College of Art, Kolkata as a student in 1926.[10] He lost his scholarship at the school due to his involvement with the civil disobedience movement in 1930's.[11] Differences with the teaching methods and an open skirmish with the then principal Mukul Dey ultimately led to the formation of a group called the Young Artist's Student Union in 1931[12] and the Art Rebel Center.[13][14] He subsequently studied under Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury at the Government Art School in Madras.[15]

Lifetime achievement awards

Exhibitions

References

  1. Art Heritage Season 1983 - 84{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Art Heritage(1984)
  2. Art Critic. Amazon.
  3. A Mumbai NFT auction looks back at Gobardhan Ash's prolific oeuvre. Architectural Digest(13 January 2022).
  4. The power of ideas in art.
  5. Art Heritage Season 1983 - 84{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Art Heritage(1984)
  6. Artist.
  7. Gobardhan Ash Employment.
  8. Indian Art School Prospectus, 1955.
  9. Ranjit Hoskote on Gobardhan Ash. Facebook.
  10. AstaGuru - Gobardhan Ash Profile.
  11. [{{{url}}} A lifetime on canvas](28 August 1993).
  12. Young Artists Student Union(30 November 2021).
  13. Rebel Artists Center.
  14. The Reception of Modern European Art in Calcutta: a Complex Negotiation (1910s-1940s). Academia.edu({Template:Date).
  15. Kolkata art gallery, Aakriti, celebrates famed Bengal artist Gobardhan Ash's 105th anniversary, Nag, Ashoke. Economic Times.
  16. Award From the Academy of Fine Arts.
  17. Abanindra Puraskar for Gobardhan Ash. Delhi Art Gallery. DAG.
  18. SaffronArt - Gobardhan Ash Awards.
  19. AIFACS AWARD 1988.
  20. Award from Art Heritage.
  21. Calcutta University Institute Art Exhibition, Calcutta University.
  22. Art Rebel Center.
  23. First Exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts.
  24. Second Annual Exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts.
  25. Fourth Annual Exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts.
  26. Society of Modern Art Exhibition.
  27. Twenty Third Annual Exhibition by the Students and ex-Students of the Government College of Art.
  28. Catalogue of Indian Exhibition in Singapore.
  29. Exhibition of the Calcutta Group and the Bombay Progressives.