It fetched £373,250 ($597,200) in 2009. The painting was exhibited at Sao Paulo Biennale in 1979 Day Dreaming, an ink-and-pastel on paper, is the most expensive Jogen Chowdhury painting sold at Sotheby’s auction.
Chowdhury, who was professor emeritus at Kala Bhavana in Visva-Bharati, passed away after battling a rare type of blood cancer for 14 months. Born in Bangladesh’s Faridpur in 1939, Chowdhury graduated from Government College of Art & Craft in 1960. In 1965, backed by a scholarship and with a crowd-funded ship ticket to Paris priced Rs 800, Chowdhury arrived at École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. He also remained dedicated to nurturing others — supporting students at Santiniketan by buying their work and ultimately establishing Jogen Chowdhury Centre for Arts in Kolkata in 2019.
Paying his respects to the artist, CM Suvendu Adhikari described Chowdhury as a “maestro whose distinctive strokes redefined Indian modern art” and “a towering pillar of our cultural world” whose contributions brought global recognition to Bengal. In the process, the precarity of the space is underscored,” said Samik Bandyopadhyay, teacher, publisher, writer, translator and art commentator. “It deeply influenced his perception of interpersonal relations, love, cruelty and hatred, forming the root of his lifelong exploration of the grotesque as an extension of the inner world,” said art scholar Pranab Ranjan Ray. “During his time there, he crossed paths with Jimi Hendrix and sketched his portrait, delighting the legendary musician so much that Hendrix signed and penned a compliment on it,” said artist Hiran Mitra. This became his central thought for a series he did on politicians,” Mitra said. “He promoted many at Gallery Charubasona (part of Jogen Chowdhury Centre) in Lake Gardens and even helped some newcomers financially, too,” Mitra said. Culturist Sundeep Bhutoria remembers Chowdhury as the man with a small camera in his pocket, “forever capturing candid moments of fellow artistes”. Bangladesh revered him as a living bridge of undivided Bengal, he said. I think it is worth exploring,” Bandyopadhyay said. In 1998, he wrote “Bhalobashar Katha” — a four-line poem reflecting on how matters of the heart, though timeless and ancient, remain eternally fresh and impossible to live without.
“There was tremendous power in his sharp lines that sometimes even seem to penetrate the surface of the canvas. The lines embody a linearly defined space and that space is often attacked and assaulted by a scar or a thrust. Partition left an impact on his life. “It was during this time that an interrupted presidential portrait session — halted by a forgotten pair of dentures — sparked a profound realisation about human fragility without bone and teeth. Decades later, when he returned to the corridors of power as a Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, his sketchbook was never far: he drew portraits of personalities such as Manmohan Singh, Sitaram Yechury and Smriti Irani, among others. Not many know that Chowdhury possessed a gift for poetry and prose. “Nobody has ever tried to link his poetry to his works.