BIOGRAPHY
Illustrated Timeline
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.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
About Sen Shombit
French painter Indian origin
EXPOSURE OF ART
In the last 10 years Sen Shombit has exposed his 3 genres of art in different countries such as the US, Canada, China, France, Italy, Austria, Japan and India in several solo and group exhibitions. He has been selected to showcase his works in numerous famous French Salons (created by King Louis XIV inside the Carre de Louvre) in Paris such as Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts, Salon d’Automne and Salon des Art Capital among others.
Early life
In 1954 Sen was born 50 km outside Calcutta in a refugee camp his family had helplessly squatted in during the violent Hindu-Muslim partition for India’s bloody independence in 1947. In this refugee camp with no potable water, no electricity, no sanitation, Sen’s dream of becoming an artist seemed unattainable.
At age 12, he suddenly discovered French architectural beauty in Chandannagore, the erstwhile territory of France just across the Ganges river near his refugee camp. That’s when the French artistic wave and culture grabbed Sen’s subconscious mind. Against all odds he persisted with his aspiration for art, driving himself relentlessly to get admitted to Government College of Arts and Crafts (GCAC) in Kolkata, the first British art college in India since 1860. But after 3 years, impatient to experience art in France, he left his Kolkata art college studies unfinished.
IN SEARCH OF HIS DREAMS
At age 19, with $ 8 in his pocket and his India painting dossier under his arm, (Archive) Sen landed in Paris. Without papers, without work, without friends, Sen was nevertheless sure of his destiny to be in art in France. He was first illegally employed as a sweeper in a lithographic printshop by its kind hearted proprietor who was impressed by his paintings. Here he rubbed shoulders with painters such as Leonor Fini, Alain Bonnefoit, Yves Brayer and many others. At the same time, he studied fine art in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts 1974-76, and communication graphic design at ESAG Penninghen (Academie Julian)1975-77. But the pressure of earning for day-to-day living forced him to abandon both schools unfinished. In fact, Sen upfront admits that aside from his high school leaving certificate, he has no other formal academic degree or diploma.
French art and culture became his foundation of life in Paris. Simultaneously with his creative work, he had to pursue applied art as a designer for livelihood earning where he very successfully worked for the biggest French and international brands across the world. Sen lived in France from 1973 to 2003, became a French citizen in 1984, and now divides his time between India and France.
Inspiration
Sen finds French society to have phenomenal imaginative artistic power. He says the French are always conscious of the intangible aspect in life. They can connect to, absorb and appreciate any shock-of-the-new artistic venture. That’s why many foreign artists, starting from Italy’s Leonardo da Vinci in 1516 (he died in Clos Luce in France on 2 May 1519), have been inspired and drawn to France considering it the world’s most inspiring country for art. The artistic inspiration and skill that artist Sen has experienced from French people and the French community of art have overwhelmed him. Since arriving in France at age 19, Sen has always been carrying this French inspiration of art with him.
LEGACY OF ART MOVEMENTS
Post the invention of Modern Art in France from 1870, art had taken a totally new form in Western Europe, from French art movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism among others. This invention of creating art movements that are entwined with specific ideology and artistic treatment on the art work transformed Sen’s outlook on art. It structured his mind for artistry.
GENRE CREATED BY SEN
Sen understood that an art movement structured with coherence of consistency is important for an artist’s art portfolio. It makes the artist become self-disciplined to always create a new subject of art while respecting a defined style and treatment of artwork that is noticeable as that artist’s identity. This identity has to be recognizable in every piece of art work of the artist. It has to go much beyond the artist’s signature. This understanding drew Sen to define his 3 genres of painting.
ANECDOTE
Sen’s treatment of Gesturism Art stems from his observation that all living beings have immeasurable gestures right from the time they are born. Living life is about motion, death collapses all gesticulations. The varied types of gestures in life’s trajectory, not just in human beings but in all creatures as well, has hugely impacted Sen’s artistic mind. The strokes from his painting brush bear testimony to his penchant for gestures. Watching him paint during his student days 1975 at Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris, one of his professors said, “Don’t ever lose the strength of your brush strokes, they distinguish your works of art…” Click on https://www.sen-art.com/archive/academic-period-kolkata/ (1969-73 Archive) to see how gestures have dominated his works of art from an early stage.
Sen had delved deep into French art and culture since his arrival in Paris 1973. He has imbibed Modern Art that encompasses Impressionism, Expressionism, Pointillism, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism and Dadaism. These movements revealed to him that an artist’s identity emerges from the conceptual form of his artistry. Immersed in the structure of western art, he searched within himself for a conceptual form with a totally new visual appeal in his art. Three elements were cooking in his mind for a certain time:
– the boundless gestures of living beings that always stirred him,
– his French professor’s advice to never desert his bold brush strokes, and
– his yearning to find a new visual ideology for his art.
That’s how, in 1994, he started his new conceptual and visual form, calling it Gesturism Art.
According to Sen, artistic imagination that starts in the head rolls down through the artist’s eyes and hands to be expressed on a physical surface to become a physical, single, unique piece of art. That’s why he totally escapes from the new phenomenon of digital art form, this virtual non-physical technical expression which he considers to be reproductive pseudo art. So for him Gesturism Art is a part of the physical expression of human skill and craftsmanship resulting in a single piece of art on canvas, paper or any other physical medium.
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.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
About Sen Shombit
French painter Indian origin
EXPOSURE OF ART
In the last 10 years Sen Shombit has exposed his 3 genres of art in different countries such as the US, Canada, China, France, Italy, Austria, Japan and India in several solo and group exhibitions. He has been selected to showcase his works in numerous famous French Salons (created by King Louis XIV inside the Carre de Louvre) in Paris such as Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts, Salon d’Automne and Salon des Art Capital among others.
Early life
In 1954 Sen was born 50 km outside Calcutta in a refugee camp his family had helplessly squatted in during the violent Hindu-Muslim partition for India’s bloody independence in 1947. In this refugee camp with no potable water, no electricity, no sanitation, Sen’s dream of becoming an artist seemed unattainable.
At age 12, he suddenly discovered French architectural beauty in Chandannagore, the erstwhile territory of France just across the Ganges river near his refugee camp. That’s when the French artistic wave and culture grabbed Sen’s subconscious mind. Against all odds he persisted with his aspiration for art, driving himself relentlessly to get admitted to Government College of Arts and Crafts (GCAC) in Kolkata, the first British art college in India since 1860. But after 3 years, impatient to experience art in France, he left his Kolkata art college studies unfinished.
IN SEARCH OF HIS DREAMS
At age 19, with $ 8 in his pocket and his India painting dossier under his arm, Archive Sen landed in Paris. Without papers, without work, without friends, Sen was nevertheless sure of his destiny to be in art in France. He was first illegally employed as a sweeper in a lithographic printshop by its kind hearted proprietor who was impressed by his paintings. Here he rubbed shoulders with painters such as Leonor Fini, Alain Bonnefoit, Yves Brayer and many others. At the same time, he studied in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts 1974-76, and communication graphic design at ESAG Penninghen (Academie Julian)1975-77. But the pressure of earning for day-to-day living forced him to abandon both schools unfinished. In fact, Sen upfront admits that aside from his high school leaving certificate, he has no other formal academic degree or diploma.
French art and culture became his foundation of life in Paris. Simultaneously with his creative work, he had to pursue applied art as a designer for livelihood earning where he very successfully worked for the biggest French and international brands across the world. Sen lived in France from 1973 to 2003, became a French citizen in 1984, and now divides his time between India and France.
Inspiration
Sen finds French society to have phenomenal imaginative artistic power. He says the French are always conscious of the intangible aspect in life. They can connect to, absorb and appreciate any shock-of-the-new artistic venture. That’s why many foreign artists, starting from Italy’s Leonardo da Vinci in 1516 (he died in Clos Luce in France on 2 May 1519), have been inspired and drawn to France considering it the world’s most inspiring country for art. The artistic inspiration and skill that artist Sen has experienced from French people and the French community of art have overwhelmed him. Since arriving in France at age 19, Sen has always been carrying this French inspiration of art with him.
LEGACY OF ART MOVEMENTS
Post the invention of Modern Art in France from 1870, art had taken a totally new form in Western Europe, from French art movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism among others. This invention of creating art movements that are entwined with specific ideology and artistic treatment on the art work transformed Sen’s outlook on art. It structured his mind for artistry.
GENRE CREATED BY SEN
Sen understood that an art movement structured with coherence of consistency is important for an artist’s art portfolio. It makes the artist become self-disciplined to always create a new subject of art while respecting a defined style and treatment of artwork that is noticeable as that artist’s identity. This identity has to be recognizable in every piece of art work of the artist. It has to go much beyond the artist’s signature. This understanding drew Sen to define his 3 genres of painting.
ANECDOTE
Sen’s treatment of Gesturism Art stems from his observation that all living beings have immeasurable gestures right from the time they are born. Living life is about motion, death collapses all gesticulations. The varied types of gestures in life’s trajectory, not just in human beings but in all creatures as well, has hugely impacted Sen’s artistic mind. The strokes from his painting brush bear testimony to his penchant for gestures. Watching him paint during his student days 1975 at Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris, one of his professors said, “Don’t ever lose the strength of your brush strokes, they distinguish your works of art…” Click on https://www.sen-art.com/archive/academic-period-kolkata/ (1969-73 Archive) to see how gestures have dominated his works of art from an early stage.
Sen had delved deep into French art and culture since his arrival in Paris 1973. He has imbibed Modern Art that encompasses Impressionism, Expressionism, Pointillism, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism and Dadaism. These movements revealed to him that an artist’s identity emerges from the conceptual form of his artistry. Immersed in the structure of western art, he searched within himself for a conceptual form with a totally new visual appeal in his art. Three elements were cooking in his mind for a certain time:
– the boundless gestures of living beings that always stirred him,
– his French professor’s advice to never desert his bold brush strokes, and
– his yearning to find a new visual ideology for his art.
That’s how, in 1994, he started his new conceptual and visual form, calling it Gesturism Art.
According to Sen, artistic imagination that starts in the head rolls down through the artist’s eyes and hands to be expressed on a physical surface to become a physical, single, unique piece of art. That’s why he totally escapes from the new phenomenon of digital art form, this virtual non-physical technical expression which he considers to be reproductive pseudo art. So for him Gesturism Art is a part of the physical expression of human skill and craftsmanship resulting in a single piece of art on canvas, paper or any other physical medium.
