Pioneer of modern abstraction in Painting in the Bengal school

Dr Ved Prakash Bhardwaj

Abani Sen is the pioneer of modern abstract art in the Bengal school. In the 1940s he created figurative paintings with abstraction. He was one of the modern painters in India who started painting common men and realities of life. He also paints animals and birds with a different perspective.

I had earlier had the opportunity to see a few works by Abani Sen, but this was the first time I was able to view his art on such a comprehensive scale. Meeting the artist himself was, of course, impossible, but on 11 July 2026, when I visited the residence of his son, Prabir Sen, to see the family collection, it felt as though I had, in a way, encountered Abani Sen himself. For quite some time, plans to visit had been made and postponed, but they finally materialised on that day.

Prabir Sen has created a gallery within his home to preserve his father’s works. Many paintings were displayed on the walls, while others had been placed on the floor because parts of the gallery were undergoing renovation. Prabir Sen also regularly undertakes the restoration of his father’s older works. The paintings, ranging from the 1940s to later decades, reveal the remarkable breadth and originality of the artist’s vision.

A table in the gallery displayed books, journals and exhibition catalogues related to Abani Sen. Among them was Professor Ranveer Saxena’s Art, Beauty and Life, published in 1967. There were also several books and periodicals in Bengali. Going through these materials was an enriching experience in itself. Throughout my visit, Prabir Sen spoke about his father’s life, his artistic philosophy and his relationships with fellow artists, and I found myself listening with complete fascination.

Abani Sen was born in 1905 in Dhaka, now in Bangladesh. He occupies an important place among the artists who helped shape the course of modern Indian art. At a time when the Bengal School was largely imbued with romanticism, Sen turned his attention to the realities of everyday life. Instead of relying on mythological narratives and literary themes, he chose subjects drawn from the world around him—subjects that were immediate, authentic and deeply human. He worked in a variety of media, including oil, watercolour, ink, crayon and pencil.

One of the most significant aspects of Abani Sen’s oeuvre is his depiction of animals and birds. He possessed an extraordinary understanding of their anatomy, body language and unspoken emotional states. His works emphasise not only their physical form but also their movement and expressive vitality. While remaining faithful to anatomical structure, he rendered his subjects through bold, energetic and dynamic lines. As a result, the animals and birds in his paintings appear exceptionally alive and animated.

The same rhythmic quality and vitality of line characterise his representations of human life. His works on the relationships between men and women, as well as on motherhood, are particularly noteworthy. Although he painted portraits, much of his artistic output is devoted to expressing the many dimensions of human existence and experience.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that, as a thoughtful and experimental artist, Abani Sen was among the early Indian painters to introduce abstract tendencies within figurative art. Abstraction constitutes one of the strongest aspects of his artistic language. In both his human and animal subjects, he transformed recognisable forms into increasingly abstract visual structures. These explorations were undertaken at a time when abstraction had not yet become a significant force in modern Indian art.

Abani Sen graduated from the Government School of Art, Calcutta, where he studied under Percy Brown. Later, as a teacher associated with the Sharada Ukil School of Art in New Delhi, he guided many young artists. Among them was R. N. Pasricha, who refined his artistic skills under Sen’s mentorship and went on to become a well-known painter of mountain landscapes. He taught drawing and painting at Raisina Bengali Boys’ School for two decades, where many students later became professional artists.

Abani Sen’s home remained, for many years, a vibrant meeting place for artists associated with literature, music, dance and theatre. He taught art to anyone who wished to learn, without discrimination. His students included not only distinguished artists such as Manjit Bawa but also doctors, engineers, postmen and domestic workers. Recalling his childhood, Prabir Sen remembers that, besides drawing, he and his friends would stage plays on the terrace of their home. In this way, the Sen household became a lively centre for artistic exchange across disciplines for many years—a reflection of Abani Sen’s broad, inclusive and deeply humanistic vision of art.