"There is a mingling of pictures and a blurred effect in my work which facilitates interpretations of my creations," -Arup Das (1924-2004).
"Khepera" (1972) is an exciting figurative work painted work by one of the most famous Post-Modern Indian painters, muralist and numti-media artist Arup Das (1924-2004). Das' canvases are a judicious blend of ideas that are timeless but told in a language that is pertinent to our times. This sublime portrait of a beautiful work's thick dense paint outline a mural structure in between trees, contrasting the thinly painted portrait of the ephemeral stylized figure in the foreground. Included on the structure are two scarab beetles that symbolize the religious notion of self-renewal and rebirth taken from sacred Egyptian tales. Khephra is the Egyptian name for the sun-god Ra depicted as a human with the head of a beetle. Das is renowned for painting and interpreting figures in spiritual contexts, often suggestive of old world prophecies, the coming of the Messiah, and renewal of new life. The canvas is in very good condition. This work measures 36 x 24 inches unframed.
Arup Das is a figurative painter and an acclaimed muralist. Human figures occupy the central position in his paintings. Das attempts to portray man as a social and historical being, placed within the framework of his cultural and natural environment. He is as comfortable painting with oils as he is with watercolours. He employs a wide variety of shades to depict his human figures.
Born in West Bengal in the year 1924, Arup Das studied in the UK on a British Council fellowship in 1972 and graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta. He has held 22 solo shows in several countries including Japan, the UK and Canada, and has participated in 24 group shows in India and abroad. He won the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1957 and the President's Silver Plaque in 1957. He lives and works in Delhi. His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Modem Art, New Delhi, the Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi, and the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi.
