Acknowledgements

Text - R.Sivakumar GM & Nilima Sheikh
Identification of Japan trip photos - Omuka Toshiharu Tsutomu Mizusawa
Design and formatting of CD - Pushkar Nagwekar, Kinjal Vora, Sukhdev Rathod, Sanjoy Kumar Malik
Voice - Indrapramit Roy
 

If Santiniketan marked a definitive shift from the early nationalist art identified with the Bengal School, Benodebehari played a leading role in extending theideological and linguistic directions of the movement and privileging direct visual response to the life of the region. He eschewed the overt symbolism andmythologies which engaged his elders and contemporaries and turned to the representation of immediate environment.

Participation in the formulation of Santiniketan’s pan-Asian orientation brought a gradual assimilation of the representational and compositional principles ofcalligraphic painting and its concomitant world view into his work. This synergy he brought to his perception of the Santiniketan landscape and life therein – in his drawings and sketches, unfolding scrolls and remarkable murals. The highpoint of his personal effort to extend national boundaries was a sojourn to Japan he undertook in 1937. He was eager to see the works of artists like Toba Sojo. Sesshu and Sotatsu whom he greatly admired. He had an exhibition of his work in Tokyo in 1938 and also met artists Arai Kampo and Takeuchi Seiho, art historian Saichi Taki and museum director Akiyama. 

Biribhum landscape tempera on cloth 36.8 x 26.7 cm., early 1920s	Laughter, tempera, 54 x 33 cm., c. 18922-23	Studio, tempera on paper, 36.1 x 23 cm, mid 1930s
The Bridge  tempera on cloth 47.5 x 60 cm, 1932	The Tree Lover tempera on paper, 73.7 x 40 cm, 1932	Sar Grass tempera on paper 29.5 x 51 cm., 1938
Khoai, scroll in water colour on Nepalese paper, 43 x 373 cm., c 1938	Khoai (detail 1)	Khoai (detail 2)
Banaras ghat water on paper 30.5 X 30.5 cm. 1942	Banaras Ghat 2 watercolor on Nepali paper	Benodebehari in Japan with (l to r) Yukihiko Yasuda, Ryuzo Saito, Kanpo Arai, 1937.
Benodebehari in Japan with (l to r) Seison Maeda, Kanpo Arai, 1937.	Picture Dealer's Shop in Japan water colour on silk, 1937-38	Benodebehari with Rasbehari Bose in Japan with unidentified hosts, 1937.
Lotus water colour & ink on paper 36 x 52 cm, early 1940s	Lotus ink on paper, 1942 31x61.5 cm	Pages from sketchbook water colour on paper 24x18 cm1942