Shishir Bhattacharjee (born 1960) is an artist in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. His paintings, critical of the political establishment but always in a satirical fashion, were first seen in the 1980s. His political cartoons appear regularly in daily newspapers in Bangladesh. During the past couple of years, he has produced paintings that appropriate images from Bengali

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

 film posters, altered to serve his social and political messages.

Education

He received a Master of Arts in Creative Painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, commonly referred as M. S. University , is a university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India...

 in Gujarat, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, in 1987. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka University, Bangladesh, in 1983.

Career

Although one of the most influential artist of his generation, Shishir is best known to a mass audience as a political cartoonist for Bangladeshi largest circulation Bangla-language newspaper Prothom Alo

Prothom Alo

Prothom Alo is a major daily newspaper in Bangladesh, published from Dhaka in the Bengali language.-History:Prothom Alo was founded on 4 November 1998. As at January 2009, it had an average circulation of 435,000...

 and an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University, Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. His style as a political caricaturist has now given birth to a new generation of illustrators who follow his style.

He led the influential genre-breaking group of alternative artists "Shomoy" that appeared in the 1980s, and were considered the "third wave" of Bangladesh artists. He was a vociferous and early critic of the Ershad military junta, which frequently placed him at odds with the authorities. His scathing critique of the Jamaat e Islami and 1971 war criminals made him a hated figure for the right-wing forces. Shishir is a major influence on politically motivated Bangladeshi artists.

Exhibitions

Shishir Bhattacharjee presented his first solo exhibition in 1994 in Chittagong

Chittagong

Chittagong ) is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 4.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.A trading...

, Bangladesh, and his second solo in 2000 in Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

, Bangladesh. He took part in a group exhibition under the ArtSouthAsia programme in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, UK, in 2002. He participated in a group exhibition in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. A month-long exhibition of Bhattacharjee took place in September 2007 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He was the only Bangladeshi artist in the 2007 show "System Error: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning" at Palazzo Papesse in Siena, co-curated by Bangladeshi artist & writer Naeem Mohaiemen. In March 2008, he has a group Exhibition in New York. In 2008, he had his first Bangladesh solo exhibition in seven years, at Gallery Kaya, one of the newer galleries. This show saw Shishir's popular cartoon style now blended with the earlier surrealist style of "Come See The Game" era.

Online Gallery

Find Shishir Bhattacharjee's art work online at:
http://www.jolrong.com/shishir.bhattacharjee/

External links

• "The Arts" New Age, 8 April 2005
• "Post Modernism: Recent Developments in Art in Pakistan and Bangladesh" The Metropolitan Museum of Art