Kiron Sinha

Kiron Sinha (Bengali: কিরন সিনহা), born on 4 March 1916, was the fourth of five children born to Umesh Chandra Sinha Chaudhury and Niraja Devi. He was born in Khalapara, Netrokona District, Bengal (now Bangladesh).Sinha, Gertrude (1987) ‘Letter to the Editor: Kiran Sinha's Art', The Telegraph: Kolkata, 19 July 1987 The family was Orthodox Hindu. His father was a school teacher and his mother was a folk artist.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SiSLWDakUmkC |title=Artists Directory |date=1961 |publisher=Lalit Kala Akademi |location=New Delhi, India |publication-date=1961 |access-date=19 March 2025 }}{{Cite magazine |last=Blewett |first=Verna |date=2018 |title=The artist with a difference: Finding Kiron Sinha |url=https://www.bulbulart.com/wp-content/uploads/the-statesman-festival-18.pdf |magazine=The Statesman |location=Kolkata, India |volume=Festival Issue |pages=6–14 |access-date=19 March 2025 | via=BulbulArt}} Sinha’s talent for drawing was displayed at a young age and was fostered by both his parents, and Sinha considered his mother to be his first art teacher.{{Cite news |last=Chattopadhyay |first=Purnanda |date=1981 |title=প্রধানমন্ত্রী যে-উপেক্ষিত শিল্পীর বাড়ি যাবেন |trans-title=The unacclaimed artist's house that the Prime Minister will visit |work=Ananda Bazar Patrika |language=bn |publication-place=Santiniketan, India |publication-date=8 December 1981}}{{Cite book |last1=Hirsch |first1=Lily |title=Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, Edition 2 |last2=Blewett |first2=Verna |date=2023 |publisher=Delhi Art Gallery |editor-last=Singh |editor-first=Kishore |edition=1st |location=New Delhi, India |pages=751–763 |chapter=Kiron Sinha: Encountering a Friend |access-date=19 March 2025 |chapter-url=https://dagworld.com/iconic-2.html }} When Sinha was around 12 , his mother died of cholera. This event had a huge impact on his life and in later years he would dedicate many of his artworks to his mother’s memory. Indeed, the concept of motherhood figures in his later work and in dedications both to his mother and his wife as a mother.

In June 1933 Sinha matriculated from Baradi High School & College.

One month after matriculation, with his father’s encouragement and support, Sinha was admitted to Kala Bhavana, the art department of Visva Bharati in Santiniketan, to refine his artistic talents and learn new skills. Whilst there, he studied under artists including Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij, Surendranath Kar, and Benode Behari Mukherjee.{{Cite news |last=Ghosh |first=Sabyasachi |date=1987 |title=The Agony and the Ecstasy |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.11822/page/n591/mode/2up?q=%22Kiran+Sinha%22 |access-date=19 March 2025 |work=The Telegraph |location=Kolkata, India |pages=18–19 |publication-date=7 June 1987}} In 1933, with Ramkinkar and other students, Sinha sculpted figures onto the walls of the university buildings ‘Shyamali’ and ‘Kalabari'. He flourished in his new environment and remembered his work being singled out by Rabinranath Tagore on a visit to the institution to view the work of students in 1934.

In 1937 Sinha was granted a Sino-Indian Cultural Scholarship by Tan Yun-Shan and Nandalal Bose to travel to Nanjing, China to study Chinese classical painting{{Cite magazine |last=Chattopadhyay |first=Purnanda |date=1991 |title=অবহেলিত নাকি স্ব-নির্বাসিত শিল্পী? |trans-title=Neglected, or self-exiled artists? |magazine=DESH Magazine |language=bn |location=Kolkata, India |publication-date=August 1991 |pages=98}}{{Cite book |last=Vachaspati |first=Gairola |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.441801/page/n3/mode/2up?q=%22%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3+%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BE%22 |title=भारतीय-चित्रकला |date=1963 |publisher=Mitra Prakashan |editor-last=Das |editor-first=Krishna |edition=1st |location=Allahabad |pages=254, 264, 283 |language=Hindi |trans-title=Indian Painting |access-date=20 March 2025 | via=Internet Archive}} as a scholar of Sun Yat Sen University. He went with Rabindranth Tagore’s signed documents, blessings, and a travel allowance. However, within six months of his visit, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, forcing Sinha to hastily return to India by September of that year.

By April 1938, Sinha had been awarded the Visva-Bharati Diploma.Visva-Bharati Annual Report & Audited Accounts 1937–1938. Published April 1938, page 6

Upon his return to India in early 1938, Sinha was employed as an art teacherVisva-Bharati Annual Report & Audited Accounts 1937–1938. Published April 1938, page 14 by K Sankara Menon at Rukmini Devi's institution, Kalakshetra.Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India (1960) Gertrude Sinha (w/o Kiron Sinha) Austrian National, New Delhi: National Archives of India, 6/99/60 I. C. [available from National Archives of India]{{Cite news |date=14 August 1963 |title=Viennese Artist Becomes An Indian |work=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide, Australia |pages=28}} In 1939 he was appointed art master at Vidyodaya Schools. During his tenure there, he designed costumes for school performances, as well as the School Crest that is still used today.{{Cite web |title=The School Crest |url=https://vidyodayaschools.in/logo.php |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Vidyodaya Schools, T. Nagar, Chennai}}

Whilst at Kalakshetra, Sinha met the Vienna-born artist and art teacher Gertrude Hirsch (15 June 1911 – 5 September 2011), who was teaching at the Annie Besant Memorial School. The couple married in June 1939, in defiance of Sinha’s father’s objections, but with the blessing of Rabindranath Tagore.

In 1941 Sinha left teaching to work as a full-time independent artist. During this time he painted South Indian Restaurant, Collecting Mushrooms, Gallery Tamil Women, Catching Sea Crabs, and Third Class Passengers.{{Cite book |last=Joshi |first=Mahesh |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.445992/page/n9/mode/2up |title=उस युगीन भारतीय कला |date=1995 |publisher=Rajasthani Prathagar |edition=1st |location=Jodhpur |pages=288 |language=Hindi |trans-title=Indian Art Through the Ages |access-date=20 March 2025 | via=Internet Archive}} From February to April 1942 he collaborated with Gertrude Sinha Hirsch to produce a pair of murals for the Students’ Common Room in the Women’s Christian College, Chennai.{{Cite magazine |last=Parkar |first=Hamida |title=The art of loving in tragedy |url=https://www.indianlink.com.au/art-loving-tragedy/ | magazine=Indian Link |date=14 November 2018 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=24–25 |access-date=19 March 2025}}Sinha, K., Sinha G., Dattaji, M. S., George, E. (1942) 'The Rhythm of Life'. The Sunflower, Madras: Women's Christian College. Vol 42 pp.9–13 They are still there today.

Whilst Sinha continued to work independently as an artist, Gertrude worked at many jobs around India to support Sinha’s career. At each location Sinha followed his wife and recorded aspects of the environment and daily life. However, Gertrude was not only his wife and key financial supporter, Sinha declared that he regarded her as his most significant artistic influence and was “my inspiration, my muse, my most important teacher and the love of my life”.

In early 1943 the couple worked, painted, and travelled in Rajasthan. Here, Sinha painted Jodhpur Women and Udaipur Women. By January 1944 they were living in Lahore, where Gertrude had taken up a position as Lecturer of Art at the University of Panjab’s Fine Arts Department.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.97273/page/n669/mode/2up?q=%22gertrude+sinha+hirsch%22 |title=The Calendar Of The University of the Panjab, volume 1 |date=1945 |publisher=The Civil and Military Gazette |location=The Mall, Lahore |pages=632 |access-date=19 March 2025 | via=Internet Archive}} In Lahore, Sinha painted Old Mali and Monsoon Canal.

The couple’s first and only child, Kamona (nicknamed Bulbul), was born in June 1945 in Mussoorie. This event prompted the new family to settle down and they purchased land in Santiniketan in 1947. For the first two years of Kamona’s life, Sinha and Gertrude shifted between Lahore and Santiniketan as Gertrude remained in her job and Sinha started designing and building the house in Santiniketan.

In 1946, Sinha was elected an 'Ordinary Member' of Visva-Bharati.{{Cite journal |date=July 1946 |title=Visva-Bharati News |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.95160/page/n47/mode/2up?q=%22kiron+sinha%22 |journal=Visva-Bharati News |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=44 |access-date=19 March 2025 |via=Internet Archive}}

The couple lived in Shillong, Assam (now Meghalaya) from 1948 to 1950 while Gertrude held her government-funded post as Industrial Art Expert working under Thomas Hayley, Secretary and Director of Rural Development to the Government of Assam. During this time the couple met local artist Asu Dev and his wife, Bela, and a strong and enduring friendship developed.{{Cite web |last=Deb |first=Anutosh |title=Bulbul Art: Celebrating the art and lives of Kiron Sinha (1916–2009) and Gertrude Sinha Hirsch (1911–2011) |url=https://artofasudev.org/aaftaa/bulbul-art/ |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Art of Asu Dev|date=19 March 2023 }} The artists collaborated on projects, including the design and production of woodblocks.{{Cite book |last=Deb |first=Anutosh |title=Asu Dev: Homage to the Artist |publisher=Anutosh Deb |year=1983 |location=Guwahati}} After Sinha and Gertrude settled in Santiniketan they continued to design and carve woodblocks for many years and Gertrude used them to produce highly sought-after printed textiles; wall hangings, housewares, and clothing.{{Cite journal |last1=King |first1=Edith |last2=King |first2=Earl |date=15 October 1956 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Mary Alice |title=Handweaving in India Today |url=https://ia902308.us.archive.org/31/items/sim_handweaver-craftsman_fall-1956_7_4/sim_handweaver-craftsman_fall-1956_7_4.pdf |journal=Handweaver & Craftsman |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=10–13, 53–54 |access-date=19 March 2025 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news |date=1950 |title=News from the Capital |work=Eve's Weekly |location=Bombay, India |pages=unknown}}{{Cite news |last=Fabri |first=Charles |date=22 October 1951 |title=Kiron and Gertrud Sinha: Paintings and Textiles (Institute of Foreign Languages, Davico's) |work=The Statesman |location=New Delhi, India |pages=unknown}}{{Cite news |date=22 October 1951 |title=Exhibition of Textile Prints and Paintings |work=Hindustan Times |location=New Delhi, India |pages=unknown}}{{Cite news |date=22 October 1951 |title=Mr Kiron Sinha's Paintings Exhibition at I.F.L. Centre |work=Times of India |location=New Delhi, India |pages=unknown}}{{Cite news |last=Francis |first=Ivor |date=15 July 1952 |title=Show exciting, stimulating |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130815701? |access-date=19 March 2025 |work=The News |location=Adelaide, Australia |pages=9 | via=Trove}}{{Cite news |date=18 December 1952 |title=From our Art Critic |work=The Statesman |location=New Delhi, India |pages=unknown}}

By mid-1950 the family returned to Santiniketan where they remained residents for the rest of their lives.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Sinha had a prolific output and held many exhibitions including in Delhi, Calcutta, Lucknow, and Australia. It was at one of these exhibitions in the early 1950s that Gertrude met Indira Gandhi and befriended her.{{Cite news |last=Chattopadhyay |first=Purnanda |date=20 November 1984 |title=এটাই হবে আমার হাতের শেষ মূর্তি। |trans-title=This will be the last statue by my hands |work=Ananda Bazar Patrika |location=Santiniketan, India |pages=unknown |language=bn}} Indira Gandhi became an admirer of Sinha's paintings and Gertrude’s hand-printed textiles and purchased many works, which she displayed in public offices and were given to foreign visitors and dignitaries. She also inaugurated Sinha's exhibition at the Freemason’s Hall in 1952.{{Cite news |date=18 December 1952 |title=Kiron Sinha's Paintings: Exhibition Opened |work=Hindusthan Standard |location=New Delhi, India |pages=unknown}}

Inspired by the colossal works of his teacher and mentor Ramkinkar Baij, Sinha further developed and refined the technique for sculpture in cement, sometimes adding coloured oxides. The first of these works, Santal Couple with Dog was created in his garden in Santiniketan. It was completed in 1952 and, 2.3 metres tall, is larger than life. Throughout his life, Sinha completed at least 50 more of these large-scale sculptures.

In the late 1950s, Sinha met the young student A. Ramachandran, to whom he became somewhat of a “guide” and “sobering influence”{{Cite book |url=https://issuu.com/artianaindia/docs/a._ramachandran_-_yayati_-_ecatalogue |title=Yayati: Limited Edition Serigraphs by A. Ramachandran |date=2014 |publisher=The Serigraph Studio |location=New Delhi, India |pages=56 |access-date=19 March 2025 | via=Issuu}} – they would have rich conversations about art and art movements and Sinha encouraged Ramachandran in the use of oils.{{Cite journal |last=Archana |first=Rani |date=2012 |title=Joyous Celebration of Nature in A. Ramachandran's Painting |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338014927 |journal=IMIS International Press |pages=14–17 |access-date=19 March 2025 | via=ResearchGate}} A. Ramachandran would sometimes join Sinha on one of his many forays into the Birbhum villages where he would paint and sketch the landscapes and the Santal people – at life, and at work.{{Cite journal |last1=Blewett |first1=Verna |last2=Hirsch |first2=Lily |last3=Gangopadhyay |first3=Somnath |date=2015 |title=Work in art, art in work: [un]changing representations of work in the art of Kiron Sinha |url=https://www.bulbulart.com/wp-content/uploads/Blewett-2015-Work-in-art.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the 19th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association |location=Melbourne, Australia |access-date=19 March 2025 | via=BulbulArt}}

In 1957, Shantanu Ukil visited Santiniketan and met Sinha. Sinha's neo-Impressionistic style, studies of the Santal people, and palette of bold colours inspired Shantanu and his work.{{Cite web |last=Ukil, Satyasri |first=Satyasri |date=2012 |title=Shantanu Ukil: Profile of the Painter |url=http://unikcolors.blogspot.com/2012/11/shantanu-ukil.html |access-date=19 March 2025 |website=Unikcolors}}

In 1962 Sinha was introduced to M. S. Randhawa. Randhawa admired Sinha’s work, particularly his documentation of local people, and so he suggested that Sinha spend time in the Kulu and Kangra valleys, where he could record the landscape and people. In the mid-1960s, Sinha built a house in Naggar and the family stayed there many times until the late 1960s. It was in Naggar that the family developed a  friendship with the Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich and his wife Devika Rani. The time in the Kulu Valley was a prolific one for Sinha and works from that time were purchased by Randhawa for the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, whilst others were purchased by the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata.

In 1968 Sinha was employed by Visva Bharati as a designer and teacher at Silpa Sadana, Sriniketan, in the development of craft-based art. Here he worked predominantly designing ceramics and textiles. He worked closely with a colleague, a Japanese ceramicist, to produce thrown vessels to Kiron’s designs that he subsequently decorated.

Leo Hirsch, Gertrude’s only sibling, had emigrated to Adelaide, Australia, in 1939. Leo and Gertrude corresponded regularly and Leo provided Sinha with painting materials for decades and did his best to promote Sinha’s work in Australia.

In 1972 Sinha and Gertrude’s only daughter, Kamona (Bulbul) died in an accident. Over the next few years Sinha produced a series of deeply emotional paintings depicting Bulbul in the spirit world and his own grief at her loss, including Bulbul Playing the Mouth Organ in a Tree, Bulbul Passing to the Spirit World, Spirit of Kamona and Grieving Father.

Following this major event, Sinha's work entered a new phase of exploration that examined Lila, the divine play of Krishna, where he depicts Radha and the gopis.

File:BAC-10366 Kiron with Monsoon Melody SINK-2004 1988-01-16 DSCN2381.jpg

Coupled with the tragic event of losing his only daughter was Sinha's increasingly deteriorating  eyesight from the mid-1970s onwards. During this time the couple had virtually no income and lived in poverty. He turned to painting on chattis (woven date palm mats) as they were cheaper than canvas. By the late 1980s Sinha could only see light and shade, and he was completely blind by the late 1990s.

In the early 1980s he gave up painting and turned to sculpture and friezes in cement as a response to his blindness, describing that he could “see” with his hands. Most of these late sculptures were more than life size, featured Bulbul’s face, and were dedicated to her, or to Gertrude as Bulbul’s mother.

Their poverty and Sinha's blindness caused the ageing couple to become more and more reclusive. This was compounded by a violent burglary on 17 September 1980 where Gertrude was badly hurt and paintings were damaged, and another on 25 August 2005 where at least 18 paintings were stolen.

In their final years, both Sinha and Gertrude led private lives and did not leave their compound. They were brought food and were cared for by local people until their deaths.

Sinha continued to sculpt small hand-sized pieces from cement and oxides almost until the day he died.

Sinha died in Santiniketan on 5 December 2009.

Sinha produced a substantial body of plein-air work in rural West Bengal and in other parts of India where the couple lived. These works depict the everyday life of village people in the context of their homes, workplaces, and farms, and they represent a visual record of everyday life in the first half of the 20th century in India.{{Cite journal |last=Kumar |first=Pawan |date=2009 |title=रविवनाओं के बिंगा सृजन अट्रारा |trans-title=Creation is incomplete without feelings |journal=Arts Quarterly |language=Hindi |location=Lucknow, India |publisher=Lalit Kala Academy |pages=27–30}}{{Cite journal |last=Bhowmik |first=Sharit |date=2009 |title=Understanding labour dynamics in India |journal=South African Review of Sociology |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=47–61 |doi=10.1080/21528586.2009.10425099}}{{Cite news |date=19 September 1963 |title=Viennese in a Sari |work=The Herald |location=Melbourne, Australia |pages=34}}

Sinha's interest in folk art lasted throughout his life and many of his works across the decades explore these themes.

Sinha’s works are found in the collections of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Delhi Art Gallery, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, The Prime Ministers' Museum and Library Society,{{Cite book |last=Sharma |first=Jagdish Saran |url=https://ia601806.us.archive.org/1/items/dli.ernet.536502/536502-Jawaharlal%20Nehru%20%281955%29.pdf |title=Jawaharlal Nehru: A Descriptive Bibliography |publisher=S. Chand & Co |year=1955 |location=Delhi, Lucknow, Jullundur |pages=301–304 |access-date=19 March 2025 | via=Internet Archive}} and Visva-Bharati University. In addition to public galleries, his works are held in private and government collections in Australia, India, the UK, Spain, the US, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Indonesia, and Germany.{{Cite web |title=Welcome: Celebrating the art and lives of Kiron Sinha (1916–2009) and Gertrude Sinha Hirsch (1911–2011) |url=https://www.bulbulart.com/ |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=BulbulArt}} Many of these works were gifts from the Government of India to the governments of other countries. One sculpture is on public display in Sriniketan, West Bengal, although his signature on it is no longer visible. The three houses he designed and built still stand in Santiniketan and Naggar.

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Category:1916 births

Category:2009 deaths

Category:Bengali artists

Category:Bengali male artists

Category:Blind artists

Category:Indian blind people

Category:Indian male painters

Category:Indian male sculptors

Category:Painters from West Bengal

Category:People associated with Santiniketan

Category:People from Netrokona District

Category:20th-century Indian sculptors

Category:20th-century Indian painters

Category:Visva-Bharati University alumni