Art of Noticing: The Life and Work of Pratap Deb

The Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre is currently hosting "UNVEILED: Pratap Deb - The Artist. His Art. His Journey", a retrospective celebrating the seven-decade-long career of the late artist Pratap Deb.

- MILAN MAHAPATRA

Curated by Oroon Das, the exhibition showcases his works across oil, acrylic, pencil, and pen, tracing Deb's evolution from a student at the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta, to a government designer and finally a masterful studio artist at Lalit Kala Akademi Studio in Garhi, New Delhi.

Shubhendu Deb, Pratap Deb's son, recalls his earliest memories of his father at work. He said, "When a composition came to his mind, he would instantly use any paper in front of him to draw. I loved the smell of oil paints and turpentine in the quiet intensity of his corner studio." Art was ever-present at home, he adds, from paintings on the walls to evenings enriched by Rabindranath Tagore's songs and books on European masters like Picasso, Van Gogh, and Matisse, which shaped his early understanding of art history.