Sanyal, Bhabesh Chandra

Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal, byname Baba Sanyal, (born April 22, 1902, Assam, India—died January 9, 2003, New Delhi), Indian painter and sculptor who was credited with bringing modernism into Indian art and who was central in the founding of several Indian arts institutions.

Sanyal studied sculpture and painting at the Government School of Art and Craft, Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was commissioned to make a statue of Lala Lajpat Rai, a major advocate of Indian nationalism, for the Indian National Congress session in Lahore in 1929 at which the Congress passed its resolution calling for independence. Sanyal subsequently remained in Lahore, where he took a position as a teacher at the Mayo School of Arts.

In 1936 Sanyal left the Mayo School and launched his own school and studio, the Lahore School of Fine Arts, where he taught until 1947. After the partition of India that year, he moved to New Delhi and established a new school that soon became a hub for artists who went on to form the Delhi Shilpi Chakra, India’s first nongovernmental body of artists. Sanyal was also instrumental in the founding of such arts institutions as the Lalit Kala Akademi and the All-India Institute of Fine Arts and Crafts.

The predominant motifs in Sanyal’s works include human struggles, particularly those involving the economically disadvantaged, and rural settings and landscapes. His artwork was featured in various international exhibitions, including the Salon de Mai in Paris in 1949, the Venice Biennale in 1953, and a 1955–56 traveling exhibition of Indian art in the Soviet Union and Poland.

Sanyal remained active as an artist and administrator in the following decades. In recognition of his contributions to art, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours, in 1984.