Shanu Lahiri

About Shanu Lahiri

Shanu Lahiri (1928-2013) was a student of the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. She was the first student of the college to receive the AIFACS President's Gold Medal. From 1956 to 1958, she studied at the École du Louvre and Académie Julian in Paris on a French Government scholarship. Belonging to a culturally elevated family, her elder brothers were Nirode Majumder, India's first avant-garde artist, and Kamal Kumar Majumder.

Following her academic career in the West, she joined the faculty of visual arts at Rabindra Bharati University and became its Dean. She started India's first women-only group, called "The Group". Recognised for her individualistic style, she combined Indian folk elements and the traditions of the French Masters, and addressed the contemporary realities of society. In 2000, she was selected as the President's nominee for the Selection Committee, University of Hyderabad, and in 2003 she was conferred a D.Lit by Rabindra Bharati University.

Selected exhibitions: from the 1950s she exhibited regularly in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. In 1972 there were prominent solo shows at Toronto and San Francisco, and at Lezoterique Gallery, Montreal, in 1975. "Introducing innovations in Etching" in 1987 at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture; a 50-year retrospective at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. She held over 30 solo shows in India and abroad, and participated in several community art shows and camps.

Selected collections: Berlin Museum & Gallery; Dominion Art Gallery, Montreal; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; Museum of Bengal Modern Art, Kolkata; Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad; Birla Academy of Art & Culture; AIFACS, New Delhi; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata; Centre for Social Studies, Kolkata; École du Louvre, Paris; Raj Bhavan, Kolkata; Income Tax Department, New Delhi; La Martiniere for Girls School, Kolkata; Modern High School, Kolkata; University of Newcastle, England; Galerie La Mere, Kolkata; Galerie 88, Kolkata; London Montessori Centre, London; Indian Montessori Centre, Kolkata.