BIOGRAPHY
Illustrated Timeline
ARTIST STATEMENT, WHAT MY VISUAL DRAMA IS ABOUT
I paint visual drama full of euphoric imagination and noisy colors. My mother said from the age of 3, I was constantly scribbling visuals on the mud floor of our refugee camp. This has become my non-stop addiction till today. Even from my extreme childhood poverty, the visual thrust of form, colour and symbol accelerated me to take the daring step at age 19 of migrating to France where revolutionary Modern Art was created since 1860.
The raw colours I use in my 1sq metre palette, wide brushes upto 26cm and high-grain white canvas of different sizes tempt me to always be in the euphoric world of imagination. I paradoxically mix subjects like the human body, eroticism, living creatures like birds, horses, rhinos, sheep, pigs, panthers, flowers, even landscape or historic architecture that I explore, and the illumination of changing society. I firmly believe that fine art requires physical human skill that unleashes imagination, which is why I reject virtual digital computer art that resembles machine-made industrial mass production.
My visual drama made me create a style that has never existed before. I tightly twisted two separate European art movements, Abstract and Figurative, to create “Abstract with Hidden Figuratives” in 2005. Art critics dub my style as unprecedented and my paintings as unpredictable. They find my application of noisy Indian colour chromatics on my Western-structured paintings to be unique because they resonate deeply.
Collectors say my visual style of painting series with different themes have consistency, making my work recognizable even without my signature, and my euphoric visuals grow the economic value of my paintings.
ARTIST’S SIGNATURE
“LOVE & COURAGE”
Sen Shombit created this personal signature Love & Courage since 1991
Love: With love you can destroy jealousy, anger, hate and cruelty, and see the world in a fresh, positive and philosophical way.
Courage: With courage you can step forward with focused hard work to overcome any obstacle in life, and aspire to make the sky the limit.
About Sen Shombit
French painter Indian origin
Exposure of Art
Sen Shombit, an acclaimed French painter of Indian origin, has captivated audiences across continents. His art has been showcased in prestigious venues in the United States, Canada, China, France, Italy, Austria, Japan, and India. Along with his several solo exhibitions, significant group shows in Western countries, further solidify his reputation in the contemporary art scene. As a dedicated full-time painter since 2015, Sen’s creative evolution and relentless passion continue to inspire and redefine contemporary modern art.
Early life
Sen was born in 1954 in a squatter refugee camp near a small railway town, 50 km from Calcutta. His family, displaced Hindus from East Bengal, were victims of the violent religious partition during India’s independence in 1947. Around 20,000 refugees inhabited this 9 sq. km camp, an abandoned area lacking basic amenities like drinking water, electricity, and sanitation. Until the age of 14, Sen lived in a temporary thatched mud hut with bamboo walls before moving to Kolkata to pursue art studies.
The creativity of Sen’s refugee neighbours sparked his inclination for fine art. To sustain themselves, they crafted items like shell jewellery and colourful dolls and crockery from mud. Their expressive use of form, colour, and symbols deeply inspired him. His mother recognized his artistic bent when he was 3-years-old. She said he would wait patiently with a stick in hand as she mopped clean their mud floor with cow dung, then immediately get busy drawing on it.
A refugee neighbour named Subinoy, a well-skilled fine artist, profoundly influenced Sen. Subinoy mentored him, emphasizing, “Brush, colour, palette, and canvas must converge mentally to create a masterpiece of art.” But his own struggles as an artist who was compelled to pursue a clerical government job, made him caution Sen, “Never try to make a living with art. You will only ruin your life.”
Despite financial hardships, Sen’s mother, the family’s only breadwinner who earned a school teacher’s meagre salary, was his staunchest ally. She encouraged his art activities, disregarding societal criticism that she was dooming her son to becoming a beggar because “art cannot generate a livelihood”.
Sen’s curiosity led him to often skip school to engage in artistic pursuits. At 12, he discovered the charm of abandoned French colonial architecture in Chandernagore, a French settlement from 1673 to 1950. This artistic silhouette of French architecture across Ganges River, just 15 km from his refugee camp, created a cultural upsurge in Sen’s mind.
His father, a hardcore Marxist, had once casually mentioned that to become a painter, France was the only place he had to go to. Sen considered this to be unachievable advice, how could he reach France? Nevertheless, the idea played on his mind continuously.
Living amidst remnants of British colonial culture, Sen started comparing British and French art. French culture enamoured him, but that his friends and neighbourhood had no understanding about France frustrated him. He dropped out of school. Yet to join the first and most prestigious art school in India since 1860, Government College of Art and Crafts (GCAC) in Kolkata, he made the effort and cleared his school-leaving examination.
Disillusioned by the lack of revolutionary artistic ideas rooted in British traditions, Sen turned towards Modern Art that started in France from 1860. His focus was on following art movements like Impressionism, Expressionism, Pointillism, Cubism, and Surrealism among others. He abandoned GCAC after 3 years of study while nurturing dreams of moving to France.
Daringly, he accelerated his dreams
At 19, with just 8 dollars in his pocket and his painting portfolio under his arm, Sen arrived in Paris on a three‐month tourist visa. With no work, no friends, and no shelter, and unable to speak a word of French, he nurtured an unwavering dream of joining the French Modern Art scene.
At Orly Airport, he pored over telephone directories to find a Bengali scientist named Pyne. That’s the only name he’d heard associated with France, nothing more. After much effort, Sen reached Dr. CK Pyne’s CNRS laboratory on Boulevard Raspail.
Dr Pyne had no idea who Sen was. While he excitedly talked about his search for art, Dr Pyne looked through Sen’s art dossier. Then with unbelievable generosity, Dr Pyne took Sen to his apartment saying he could stay there till he found a job. This incredible act of kindness is indelibly etched in Sen’s mind.
After six weeks of determined job hunting, communicating largely with hand gestures and his art portfolio, a kind owner of a lithography printshop in Cachan, just 6 km south of Paris, offered Sen a job as a sweeper. He was impressed by Sen’s drawing and painting skill, but as Sen had no work permit and not yet learnt French, he paid him from his personal fund.
With perseverance, Sen integrated perfectly into French society, from printshop workers to painters who used to frequent the printshop to print their lithographs. While sweeping, Sen quickly became an indispensable helper to famous painters of that time such as Léonor Fini, Alain Bonnefoit, Yves Brayer among others. His passion, skill, and natural curiosity soon captured their attention as he assisted in the intricacies of their lithograph printing.
First art exhibition 1974
Thanks to the support of these established painters and his benevolent employer, Sen achieved the near-impossible: within just 10 months of his arrival, he held his first solo art exhibition in the prestigious Paris Opera district.
Sen displayed works from his Kolkata portfolio alongside new creations produced in Paris. Alain Bonnefoit was the first to buy two of his paintings. The ultimate morale booster for this penniless painter-cum-sweeper was that French society recognized him as a painter, not as a sweeper which was his job then.
His art dossier again opened doors
Sen’s art dossier further opened doors when he was selected to study fine art at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1974–76). However, his responsibilities extended beyond personal ambition; he was supporting both his family in Paris and his economically struggling parents and relatives in India. Recognizing the need to earn a living, painter Yves Bryer recommended that Sen enrol in a course on applied art to navigate the communication world and secure quick income.
Once again, his art dossier came to the rescue when ESAG Penninghen (Académie Julian), the expensive applied art school, waived his student fees (1975–77). Unfortunately, Sen’s financial obligations forced him to leave both art schools before completing their programs. He openly acknowledges this decision, noting that aside from his Indian school leaving certificate, he holds no official university degree.
During his time at École des Beaux-Arts in 1974, a threefold artistic legacy, all within a radius of 100 meters, enveloped Sen. The proximity of Voltaire’s home instilled in him the principle of free expression; the Louvre Museum stimulated him for housing masterpieces made by the Masters of Western art; and from the 350-year-old École, with alumni such as Ingres, Moreau, and Matisse, he learnt the craftsmanship of the new trend of Modern Art. This triumvirate of influences became the foundation of his creative skills and imaginative power, an education far surpassing the formal courses he was forced to abandon.
Alongside his painting, Sen pursued applied art as a designer to support his family. In this role, he infused art into industrial design, collaborating with some of the largest French and international corporations across five continents. During that period, he averaged about 50 paintings a year while also holding several solo exhibitions. Since committing full-time to painting in 2015, his output has soared to approximately 150 works annually.
Sen resided in France from 1973 to 2003, became a French citizen in 1984. He now divides his time between India, France, and the international venues where his work continues to fascinate global audiences.
Essence of French Inspiration
In Paris, French art and culture quickly became the heartbeat of Sen’s life. He found that French intellectuals, with their celebrated lateral thinking, approached art and life with a soulful ingenuity. Sen marvels at how French society embraces the intangible, absorbing and appreciating every bold new shock of creative adventure. This constantly redefines them as avant-garde. The deeply imaginative spirit of France was so compelling that, despite multiple lucrative offers to migrate to the United States, he chose to remain in France.
French history has long been intertwined with artistic brilliance. King Francis I famously invited Leonardo da Vinci to France in 1516, where the master spent his final years at the castle of Clos Lucé before his death in 1519. Since then, greats like van Gogh, Picasso, Kandinsky, and Modigliani, among others, have sought refuge in France, a country that welcomes artistic expression without borders. The rich legacy and generous creative community in France continue to inspire and shape Sen’s work.
Legacy of French Art Movements
The advent of Modern Art in France around 1860 sparked a radical transformation in Western Europe. Artistic movements like Impressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism not only redefined the visual landscape but also injected a revolutionary form of lateral thinking into everyday life. The French approach of linking artistic movements to clear ideologies and distinctive stylistic expressions has profoundly transformed Sen’s craft. Embracing this heritage, Sen has grounded his creative process in four key self-discipline principles:
- Singular Substance: Crafting a visual style that is recognizable, and has not been published before.
- Consistency: Maintaining consistency in the style, while always bringing in new themes and imagination.
- Universal Appeal: Creating a strong conceptual form that evokes universal appeal in each painting. Also, to articulate the name of each painting.
- Series Development: Making different series of paintings is Sen’s personal preference. He expands one idea into a storyline with multiple paintings.
Sen’s Heritage of Indian Colours
Sen’s roots are deeply embedded in a land renowned for its vivid palette and exuberant use of colour. In India, colours are embraced with a jubilant freedom, infusing every aspect of life, from celebration to mourning, with a boldness that knows no hierarchy. India’s 1.5 billion people celebrate colour as a symbol of inclusiveness, which has no dogma of “good” or “bad” as values.
This vivid cultural backdrop enlightens Sen’s art, where the riot of colours reflects his Indian origin. Yet, his work also exhibits the precise structure and artistic discipline characteristic of Western traditions. In his abstract paintings imbued with hidden figurative elements, his art collectors say that they represent an elegant synthesis of unbridled Indian vibrancy and refined Western compositional balance.
What Is Sen’s Art Today?
Abstract and Figurative are two art movements that have existed in Europe since a long time. By enmeshing these two movements in a tight twist, Sen is revealing an innovative blend of newness with every encounter in his paintings.
Sen has a discomfort with the pervasiveness of digitization today. He says its repetitive virtual distortion is flattening the world, exposing everything in society’s day to day life, and leaving it devoid of mystery. He revolts against this virtual misrepresentation and monotony. According to him, every human being yearns for something that’s hidden, a private garden to enjoy with a nonchalant personal flair, a space where personal nuances flourish, away from the prying eyes of an overly exposed digital world.
The absence of the secreted private garden has led Sen to create an experience that will expose the hidden aspect differently for different people. After a lot of visual art experience and research, since 2005, he has come to an inventive burner to interweave both Abstract and Figurative movements through a window of hidden twists. And so emerged “Abstract with Hidden Figuratives”, the previously unpublished painting style of Sen Shombit that invites each viewer to embark on a personal journey of discovery within his paintings.
Punch Out Retro Peddling
Drawing on his life’s challenges, Sen explains with a smile, “When you come from a hand-to-mouth family, retro peddling is the first torque you face each morning. Artistic euphoria is like a delicate rose, but the relentless fire of daily survival can easily scorch it. Only through unwavering sweat and perseverance can you transform retro peddling into forward momentum.
“If you believe in your art, you have to make retro peddling into a punching bag, punch it 18 hours a day without dreaming of success. Only then can you overcome your dark economic situation. Yes, visual art can win anything in the world. Even after death it leaves behind something for everyone to see forever.”
ARTIST STATEMENT, WHAT MY VISUAL DRAMA IS ABOUT
I paint visual drama full of euphoric imagination and noisy colors. My mother said from the age of 3, I was constantly scribbling visuals on the mud floor of our refugee camp. This has become my non-stop addiction till today. Even from my extreme childhood poverty, the visual thrust of form, colour and symbol accelerated me to take the daring step at age 19 of migrating to France where revolutionary Modern Art was created since 1860.
The raw colours I use in my 1sq metre palette, wide brushes upto 26cm and high-grain white canvas of different sizes tempt me to always be in the euphoric world of imagination. I paradoxically mix subjects like the human body, eroticism, living creatures like birds, horses, rhinos, sheep, pigs, panthers, flowers, even landscape or historic architecture that I explore, and the illumination of changing society. I firmly believe that fine art requires physical human skill that unleashes imagination, which is why I reject virtual digital computer art that resembles machine-made industrial mass production.
My visual drama made me create a style that has never existed before. I tightly twisted two separate European art movements, Abstract and Figurative, to create “Abstract with Hidden Figuratives” in 2005. Art critics dub my style as unprecedented and my paintings as unpredictable. They find my application of noisy Indian colour chromatics on my Western-structured paintings to be unique because they resonate deeply.
Collectors say my visual style of painting series with different themes have consistency, making my work recognizable even without my signature, and my euphoric visuals grow the economic value of my paintings.
ARTIST’S SIGNATURE
“LOVE & COURAGE”
Sen Shombit created this personal signature Love & Courage since 1991
Love: With love you can destroy jealousy, anger, hate and cruelty, and see the world in a fresh, positive and philosophical way.
Courage: With courage you can step forward with focused hard work to overcome any obstacle in life, and aspire to make the sky the limit.
About Sen Shombit
French painter Indian origin
Exposure of Art
Sen Shombit, an acclaimed French painter of Indian origin, has captivated audiences across continents. His art has been showcased in prestigious venues in the United States, Canada, China, France, Italy, Austria, Japan, and India. Along with his several solo exhibitions, significant group shows in Western countries, further solidify his reputation in the contemporary art scene. As a dedicated full-time painter since 2015, Sen’s creative evolution and relentless passion continue to inspire and redefine contemporary modern art.
Early life
Sen was born in 1954 in a squatter refugee camp near a small railway town, 50 km from Calcutta. His family, displaced Hindus from East Bengal, were victims of the violent religious partition during India’s independence in 1947. Around 20,000 refugees inhabited this 9 sq. km camp, an abandoned area lacking basic amenities like drinking water, electricity, and sanitation. Until the age of 14, Sen lived in a temporary thatched mud hut with bamboo walls before moving to Kolkata to pursue art studies.
The creativity of Sen’s refugee neighbours sparked his inclination for fine art. To sustain themselves, they crafted items like shell jewellery and colourful dolls and crockery from mud. Their expressive use of form, colour, and symbols deeply inspired him. His mother recognized his artistic bent when he was 3-years-old. She said he would wait patiently with a stick in hand as she mopped clean their mud floor with cow dung, then immediately get busy drawing on it.
A refugee neighbour named Subinoy, a well-skilled fine artist, profoundly influenced Sen. Subinoy mentored him, emphasizing, “Brush, colour, palette, and canvas must converge mentally to create a masterpiece of art.” But his own struggles as an artist who was compelled to pursue a clerical government job, made him caution Sen, “Never try to make a living with art. You will only ruin your life.”
Despite financial hardships, Sen’s mother, the family’s only breadwinner who earned a school teacher’s meagre salary, was his staunchest ally. She encouraged his art activities, disregarding societal criticism that she was dooming her son to becoming a beggar because “art cannot generate a livelihood”.
Sen’s curiosity led him to often skip school to engage in artistic pursuits. At 12, he discovered the charm of abandoned French colonial architecture in Chandernagore, a French settlement from 1673 to 1950. This artistic silhouette of French architecture across Ganges River, just 15 km from his refugee camp, created a cultural upsurge in Sen’s mind.
His father, a hardcore Marxist, had once casually mentioned that to become a painter, France was the only place he had to go to. Sen considered this to be unachievable advice, how could he reach France? Nevertheless, the idea played on his mind continuously.
Living amidst remnants of British colonial culture, Sen started comparing British and French art. French culture enamoured him, but that his friends and neighbourhood had no understanding about France frustrated him. He dropped out of school. Yet to join the first and most prestigious art school in India since 1860, Government College of Art and Crafts (GCAC) in Kolkata, he made the effort and cleared his school-leaving examination.
Disillusioned by the lack of revolutionary artistic ideas rooted in British traditions, Sen turned towards Modern Art that started in France from 1860. His focus was on following art movements like Impressionism, Expressionism, Pointillism, Cubism, and Surrealism among others. He abandoned GCAC after 3 years of study while nurturing dreams of moving to France.
Daringly, he accelerated his dreams
At 19, with just 8 dollars in his pocket and his painting portfolio under his arm, Sen arrived in Paris on a three‐month tourist visa. With no work, no friends, and no shelter, and unable to speak a word of French, he nurtured an unwavering dream of joining the French Modern Art scene.
At Orly Airport, he pored over telephone directories to find a Bengali scientist named Pyne. That’s the only name he’d heard associated with France, nothing more. After much effort, Sen reached Dr. CK Pyne’s CNRS laboratory on Boulevard Raspail.
Dr Pyne had no idea who Sen was. While he excitedly talked about his search for art, Dr Pyne looked through Sen’s art dossier. Then with unbelievable generosity, Dr Pyne took Sen to his apartment saying he could stay there till he found a job. This incredible act of kindness is indelibly etched in Sen’s mind.
After six weeks of determined job hunting, communicating largely with hand gestures and his art portfolio, a kind owner of a lithography printshop in Cachan, just 6 km south of Paris, offered Sen a job as a sweeper. He was impressed by Sen’s drawing and painting skill, but as Sen had no work permit and not yet learnt French, he paid him from his personal fund.
With perseverance, Sen integrated perfectly into French society, from printshop workers to painters who used to frequent the printshop to print their lithographs. While sweeping, Sen quickly became an indispensable helper to famous painters of that time such as Léonor Fini, Alain Bonnefoit, Yves Brayer among others. His passion, skill, and natural curiosity soon captured their attention as he assisted in the intricacies of their lithograph printing.
First art exhibition 1974
Thanks to the support of these established painters and his benevolent employer, Sen achieved the near-impossible: within just 10 months of his arrival, he held his first solo art exhibition in the prestigious Paris Opera district.
Sen displayed works from his Kolkata portfolio alongside new creations produced in Paris. Alain Bonnefoit was the first to buy two of his paintings. The ultimate morale booster for this penniless painter-cum-sweeper was that French society recognized him as a painter, not as a sweeper which was his job then.
His art dossier again opened doors
Sen’s art dossier further opened doors when he was selected to study fine art at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1974–76). However, his responsibilities extended beyond personal ambition; he was supporting both his family in Paris and his economically struggling parents and relatives in India. Recognizing the need to earn a living, painter Yves Bryer recommended that Sen enrol in a course on applied art to navigate the communication world and secure quick income.
Once again, his art dossier came to the rescue when ESAG Penninghen (Académie Julian), the expensive applied art school, waived his student fees (1975–77). Unfortunately, Sen’s financial obligations forced him to leave both art schools before completing their programs. He openly acknowledges this decision, noting that aside from his Indian school leaving certificate, he holds no official university degree.
During his time at École des Beaux-Arts in 1974, a threefold artistic legacy, all within a radius of 100 meters, enveloped Sen. The proximity of Voltaire’s home instilled in him the principle of free expression; the Louvre Museum stimulated him for housing masterpieces made by the Masters of Western art; and from the 350-year-old École, with alumni such as Ingres, Moreau, and Matisse, he learnt the craftsmanship of the new trend of Modern Art. This triumvirate of influences became the foundation of his creative skills and imaginative power, an education far surpassing the formal courses he was forced to abandon.
Alongside his painting, Sen pursued applied art as a designer to support his family. In this role, he infused art into industrial design, collaborating with some of the largest French and international corporations across five continents. During that period, he averaged about 50 paintings a year while also holding several solo exhibitions. Since committing full-time to painting in 2015, his output has soared to approximately 150 works annually.
Sen resided in France from 1973 to 2003, became a French citizen in 1984. He now divides his time between India, France, and the international venues where his work continues to fascinate global audiences.
Essence of French Inspiration
In Paris, French art and culture quickly became the heartbeat of Sen’s life. He found that French intellectuals, with their celebrated lateral thinking, approached art and life with a soulful ingenuity. Sen marvels at how French society embraces the intangible, absorbing and appreciating every bold new shock of creative adventure. This constantly redefines them as avant-garde. The deeply imaginative spirit of France was so compelling that, despite multiple lucrative offers to migrate to the United States, he chose to remain in France.
French history has long been intertwined with artistic brilliance. King Francis I famously invited Leonardo da Vinci to France in 1516, where the master spent his final years at the castle of Clos Lucé before his death in 1519. Since then, greats like van Gogh, Picasso, Kandinsky, and Modigliani, among others, have sought refuge in France, a country that welcomes artistic expression without borders. The rich legacy and generous creative community in France continue to inspire and shape Sen’s work.
Legacy of French Art Movements
The advent of Modern Art in France around 1860 sparked a radical transformation in Western Europe. Artistic movements like Impressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism not only redefined the visual landscape but also injected a revolutionary form of lateral thinking into everyday life. The French approach of linking artistic movements to clear ideologies and distinctive stylistic expressions has profoundly transformed Sen’s craft. Embracing this heritage, Sen has grounded his creative process in four key self-discipline principles:
- Singular Substance: Crafting a visual style that is recognizable, and has not been published before.
- Consistency: Maintaining consistency in the style, while always bringing in new themes and imagination.
- Universal Appeal: Creating a strong conceptual form that evokes universal appeal in each painting. Also, to articulate the name of each painting.
- Series Development: Making different series of paintings is Sen’s personal preference. He expands one idea into a storyline with multiple paintings.
Sen’s Heritage of Indian Colours
Sen’s roots are deeply embedded in a land renowned for its vivid palette and exuberant use of colour. In India, colours are embraced with a jubilant freedom, infusing every aspect of life, from celebration to mourning, with a boldness that knows no hierarchy. India’s 1.5 billion people celebrate colour as a symbol of inclusiveness, which has no dogma of “good” or “bad” as values.
This vivid cultural backdrop enlightens Sen’s art, where the riot of colours reflects his Indian origin. Yet, his work also exhibits the precise structure and artistic discipline characteristic of Western traditions. In his abstract paintings imbued with hidden figurative elements, his art collectors say that they represent an elegant synthesis of unbridled Indian vibrancy and refined Western compositional balance.
What Is Sen’s Art Today?
Abstract and Figurative are two art movements that have existed in Europe since a long time. By enmeshing these two movements in a tight twist, Sen is revealing an innovative blend of newness with every encounter in his paintings.
Sen has a discomfort with the pervasiveness of digitization today. He says its repetitive virtual distortion is flattening the world, exposing everything in society’s day to day life, and leaving it devoid of mystery. He revolts against this virtual misrepresentation and monotony. According to him, every human being yearns for something that’s hidden, a private garden to enjoy with a nonchalant personal flair, a space where personal nuances flourish, away from the prying eyes of an overly exposed digital world.
The absence of the secreted private garden has led Sen to create an experience that will expose the hidden aspect differently for different people. After a lot of visual art experience and research, since 2005, he has come to an inventive burner to interweave both Abstract and Figurative movements through a window of hidden twists. And so emerged “Abstract with Hidden Figuratives”, the previously unpublished painting style of Sen Shombit that invites each viewer to embark on a personal journey of discovery within his paintings.
Punch Out Retro Peddling
Drawing on his life’s challenges, Sen explains with a smile, “When you come from a hand-to-mouth family, retro peddling is the first torque you face each morning. Artistic euphoria is like a delicate rose, but the relentless fire of daily survival can easily scorch it. Only through unwavering sweat and perseverance can you transform retro peddling into forward momentum.
“If you believe in your art, you have to make retro peddling into a punching bag, punch it 18 hours a day without dreaming of success. Only then can you overcome your dark economic situation. Yes, visual art can win anything in the world. Even after death it leaves behind something for everyone to see forever.”