Painter Swagata Bose was born and brought up in an enlightened family, destined to be an artist since her childhood. On completion of final school exams she did not face any difficulty to attain her desired goal.
She passed out with flying colors from Delhi College of Art(1989) in Applied Arts. Swagata worked as a freelance illustrator in different advertisement agencies with eminence. But she was not satisfied,as her creative soul wanted to cross the limited boundaries of Applied Arts with a view to delineate own thoughts freely.
In the beginning she drew some landscape in a miniature format, depicting superb beauty of ever-changing nature. Particularly a few panorama on Talsari and Sundarban reflect the exquisiteness of unmixed nature. On the other hand physical elegance of human body find expression in the form of nude study and portraiture, with right proportion and resemblance. As for example portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Pranab Mukhopadhaya, Satyajit Ray, Sachin Tendulkar to name a few can be cited. Her nude studies portraying diverse gesture-postures of models are praise-worthy for its proper character and figure interpretation. Apart from the above, paintings on Sadhu series deserve special mention for its compact composition and expressive expressions in details.
Swagata does not stick to any particular theme for a long time. Myriad thought-provoking matter crowd in to her depictions, such as common birds, Misty Sundarbans, Talsari etc. In the present adverse pandemic situation this enthusiastic artist is portraying the unfortunate aspect of the ill-fated immigrant workers which mark the social consciousness of the painter. Her art works are characterized by realistic approach, developed with aesthetic sensibility as well as expressive value.
During almost three decades of journey as an artist, Swagata Bose held several one man shows and participated in many group exhibitions, and also received some awards. This is not the end. She has long way to go and we hope there would be a breakthrough progress in her future representation also.
Calcutta Prasanta Daw 17th October 2020
Art historian and Critic.