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
My desperation for art has remained my unending palette, from my squatted refugee camp in West Bengal to the illuminated art world of Paris.
Apparent vs Subconscious contemporary fine art is the inner sense of my previously unreleased painting style, “Abstract with Hidden Figuratives”, since 2010.
In today’s digital world, everything is predictable, naked and on-the-face. Does this not muffle the imaginative bent of human beings?
Abstract and imaginative figuratives have emerged as two separate art movements since 1860, when Modern Art was born. My combining the two schools is to make viewers discover, with curiosity and intense observation, the depth their imagination takes them to in my paintings.
Consistency in my art work, with European Cartesian structure enmeshed with non-dogmatic colour usage as in Indian society, make my paintings become recognizable without my signature.
About Sen Shombit
French painter Indian origin
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED STYLE OF PAINTING
Since 2010, Sen Shombit’s painting style has transformed to have abstraction with figures hidden in them. The renowned French art critic Patrice de la Perriere has coined his style as “Abstract with hidden figuratives (Abstrait cachant du figurative)”. His comment: “Sen’s paintings are encrypted. Viewers have to discover what is hidden inside.”
Gallerist and curator Jean-Pierre de Faucigny-Lucinge has commented: “Sen is a contemporary painter whose paintings have a western structure while his colour application is unstructured as used in Indian society. This makes his painting style singularly unique, ahead of his time and incomparable.”
EXPOSURE OF ART
In the last 12 years Sen Shombit’s art has been exhibited in different countries such as the US, Canada, China, France, Italy, Austria, Japan and India in solo and group exhibitions.
He has been selected to showcase his works in famous French Salons in Paris such as Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts (created by King Louis XIV inside the Carre de Louvre), Salon d’Automne and Salon des Art Capital, among others.
EUROPEAN ART INFLUENCE
Post invention of Modern Art in France from 1860, fine art had taken a totally new form in Western Europe. This has radically changed fine art from classic to modernity. Sen’s outlook on art was transformed from the French invention of creating art movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism among others. This structured his mind for artistry. He understood that a specific art style or art movement controlled 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 recognizable as that artist’s identity, even without his signature.
Early life
In 1954 Sen was born 50 km outside Calcutta in a squatted refugee camp. In 1947 during India’s violent Hindu-Muslim religious partition for independence from 200 years of British colonialism, his family became homeless, forced to quit East Bengal from living a luxurious lifestyle there. 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 Chandernagore, 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 a dossier of his paintings done in India under his arm, Sen landed in Paris with a 3-month tourist visa. Without a resident permit, without work, shelter or knowing the language, and without knowing anyone in France, Sen was nevertheless sure of his destiny to be a painter in France. He was first 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. Sen’s India art portfolio was so strong that he easily got admitted to study 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 time to attend to studies while earning for day-to-day living forced him to abandon both schools unfinished. In fact, Sen upfront admits he has no formal academic degree or diploma aside from a school leaving certificate from India.
ENRICHING TRIO ENVIRONMENT
When studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1974, Sen was penniless, doing a sweeping job for survival. But he says, the trio environment of artistic legacy that surrounded him then had contributed enormously to his learning, much above any school study could. Within a radius of 100 meters was the home of Voltaire; this taught him the keystone of freedom of expression. Louvre Museum, the foundation of western art, stimulated him with its legacy of master classic art painters. From Ecole des Beaux Arts where famous painters Ingres, Moreau and Matisse among others were alumni, he learned the craftsmanship of the new trend of Modern Art. Sen enriched his learning being amid this trio artistic environment. It contributed to empowering his freedom of expression beyond the ordinary. French art and culture have since become Sen’s foundation of life in France.
Simultaneously with his painting work, Sen had to pursue applied art as a designer for livelihood earning. He very successfully worked for the biggest French and international brands across the world for quite a few years. He has had no interruption in his fine art practice since his early years. During his corporate life, he used to do 50 paintings a year followed by many art exhibitions. Today as a fulltime painter since 2015, he does 150 paintings per year and exposes his work in several countries around the world. Sen lived in France from 1973 to 2003, became a French citizen in 1984, and now divides his time between India, France and other countries.
ADMIRATION
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 (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 Sen has experienced from French people and the French art community have overwhelmed him. Since arriving in France at age 19, Sen has carried this French inspiration of art. The colour drives Indian society in every aspect of daily life, a profusion of irreverent colours in Sen’s paintings define his Indian origin, even as his painting style, abstract with hidden figuratives, have Western Cartesian discipline.
DIFFERENT PERIODS OF ART WORK
Upto 1977, it was Sen’s academic art period. From 1977 to 1984, was his time of introspection on his art. From 1984 to 1993, he painted with free expression without any boundary in search of his own style. From 1994 onwards, he invented 3 previously unreleased styles. The first was Gesturism Art. In 2008, he created his second style, naming it Desordre Harmony. From 2010 he has been focusing on his third style, Abstract with hidden figuratives, as coined by a French art critic. He is now focusing on Abstract with hidden figuratives. From time to time, the other 2 styles also come back.
“In life, a painter never retires from the easel, canvas, paint, palette and imagination.”
– Sen Shombit
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
My desperation for art has remained my unending palette, from my squatted refugee camp in West Bengal to the illuminated art world of Paris.
Apparent vs Subconscious contemporary fine art is the inner sense of my previously unreleased painting style, “Abstract with Hidden Figuratives”, since 2010.
In today’s digital world, everything is predictable, naked and on-the-face. Does this not muffle the imaginative bent of human beings?
Abstract and imaginative figuratives have emerged as two separate art movements since 1860, when Modern Art was born. My combining the two schools is to make viewers discover, with curiosity and intense observation, the depth their imagination takes them to in my paintings.
Consistency in my art work, with European Cartesian structure enmeshed with non-dogmatic colour usage as in Indian society, make my paintings become recognizable without my signature.
About Sen Shombit
French painter Indian origin
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED STYLE OF PAINTING
Since 2010, Sen Shombit’s painting style has transformed to have abstraction with figures hidden in them. The renowned French art critic Patrice de la Perriere has coined his style as “Abstract with hidden figuratives (Abstrait cachant du figurative)”. His comment: “Sen’s paintings are encrypted. Viewers have to discover what is hidden inside.”
Gallerist and curator Jean-Pierre de Faucigny-Lucinge has commented: “Sen is a contemporary painter whose paintings have a western structure while his colour application is unstructured as used in Indian society. This makes his painting style singularly unique, ahead of his time and incomparable.
EXPOSURE OF ART
In the last 12 years Sen Shombit’s art has been exhibited in different countries such as the US, Canada, China, France, Italy, Austria, Japan and India in solo and group exhibitions.
He has been selected to showcase his works in famous French Salons in Paris such as Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts (created by King Louis XIV inside the Carre de Louvre), Salon d’Automne and Salon des Art Capital, among others.
EUROPEAN ART INFLUENCE
Post invention of Modern Art in France from 1860, fine art had taken a totally new form in Western Europe. This has radically changed fine art from classic to modernity. Sen’s outlook on art was transformed from the French invention of creating art movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism among others. This structured his mind for artistry. He understood that a specific art style or art movement controlled 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 recognizable as that artist’s identity, even without his signature.
Early life
In 1954 Sen was born 50 km outside Calcutta in a squatted refugee camp. In 1947 during India’s violent Hindu-Muslim religious partition for independence from 200 years of British colonialism, his family became homeless, forced to quit East Bengal from living a luxurious lifestyle there. 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 Chandernagore, 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 a dossier of his paintings done in India under his arm, Sen landed in Paris with a 3-month tourist visa. Without a resident permit, without work, shelter or knowing the language, and without knowing anyone in France, Sen was nevertheless sure of his destiny to be a painter in France. He was first 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. Sen’s India art portfolio was so strong that he easily got admitted to study 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 time to attend to studies while earning for day-to-day living forced him to abandon both schools unfinished. In fact, Sen upfront admits he has no formal academic degree or diploma aside from a school leaving certificate from India.
ENRICHING TRIO ENVIRONMENT
When studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1974, Sen was penniless, doing a sweeping job for survival. But he says, the trio environment of artistic legacy that surrounded him then had contributed enormously to his learning, much above any school study could. Within a radius of 100 meters was the home of Voltaire; this taught him the keystone of freedom of expression. Louvre Museum, the foundation of western art, stimulated him with its legacy of master classic art painters. From Ecole des Beaux Arts where famous painters Ingres, Moreau and Matisse among others were alumni, he learned the craftsmanship of the new trend of Modern Art. Sen enriched his learning being amid this trio artistic environment. It contributed to empowering his freedom of expression beyond the ordinary. French art and culture have since become Sen’s foundation of life in France.
Simultaneously with his painting work, Sen had to pursue applied art as a designer for livelihood earning. He very successfully worked for the biggest French and international brands across the world for quite a few years. He has had no interruption in his fine art practice since his early years. During his corporate life, he used to do 50 paintings a year followed by many art exhibitions. Today as a fulltime painter since 2015, he does 150 paintings per year and exposes his work in several countries around the world. Sen lived in France from 1973 to 2003, became a French citizen in 1984, and now divides his time between India, France and other countries.
ADMIRATION
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 (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 Sen has experienced from French people and the French art community have overwhelmed him. Since arriving in France at age 19, Sen has carried this French inspiration of art. The colour drives Indian society in every aspect of daily life, a profusion of irreverent colours in Sen’s paintings define his Indian origin, even as his painting style, abstract with hidden figuratives, have Western Cartesian discipline.
DIFFERENT PERIODS OF ART WORK
Upto 1977, it was Sen’s academic art period. From 1977 to 1984, was his time of introspection on his art. From 1984 to 1993, he painted with free expression without any boundary in search of his own style. From 1994 onwards, he invented 3 previously unreleased styles. The first was Gesturism Art. In 2008, he created his second style, naming it Desordre Harmony. From 2010 he has been focusing on his third style, Abstract with hidden figuratives, as coined by a French art critic. He is now focusing on Abstract with hidden figuratives. From time to time, the other 2 styles also come back.
“In life, a painter never retires from the easel, canvas, paint, palette and imagination.”
– Sen Shombit
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.