Chittaprosad Bhattacharya

1915-1978

Chittaprosad was a student of the Chittagong Government
College in the mid-30s. He joined the resistance movements
against colonial oppression and the feudal domination of the
landed Indian gentry. In 1943 Chittaprosad covered the Bengal
Famine for various communist publications. Chittaprosad settled
in Bombay from 1946 onward. The transformations within
the Communist Party between 1948 and 49 caused the artist
to disassociate himself, though he continued to pursue political
themes in his art. Chittaprosad first exhibited in Prague’s National
Gallery. In 1969, the Danish UNICEF Committee published
a collection of his linocuts as Angles Without Fairy Tales,
dedicated to the Inter-Conference in Defence of Children.
He donated his Neglected Childhood series of paintings to the
UNICEF Committee of Denmark. Chittaprosad also illustrated
Indian Fables and Fairy Tales, and With Puppets to Calcutta by the
Czech writer Norbert Fryd. In 1978, an Art Archive based on his
works and belongings was established in Kolkata.