ISHA MOHAMMAD (1933 - 2021)

From the collection of a prominent Gurgaon based couple

"The early years of his artistic career were smeared with hindrances - a conservative family, the early demise of his father and philosophical dichotomies - all of which moulded the mind of the creative genius to find out his gradual flowering against all odds " - Debdutta Gupta, Vignettes of Passion: Life and Art of Isha Mohammad

Isha Mohammad was born in Konnagar, West Bengal in 1933 and studied painting in 1958 at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata. He joined his alma mater as a lecturer in early 1962 and went on to become the principal of the prestigious institution till he retired in 1994. He also underwent training in graphic art at the Dusseldorf Academi, West Germany in 1968.

Mohammad held his first solo exhibition in 1964 and in due course established himself as an important artist of Kolkata. Some of the interesting works reproduced in the book date back to the 1950s and 60s; they reveal the artist's impressions of the city of Kolkata and its people. Mohammad's paintings in recent years show a relatively simple approach in portraiture; in these works one can perceive subtle comments on sexuality, terrorism and socio-political issues.