| Medium | : | Tempera |
|---|---|---|
| Height | : | 26 inch / 66 cm |
| Width | : | 20 inch / 50.8 cm |
| Dimension | : | W: 50.8 cm × H: 66 cm |
This 2017 tempera on board by Lalu Prasad Shaw portrays a poised Bengali couple in his signature Babu-Bibi style. With minimalistic forms, a warm color palette, and fine detailing, Shaw elegantly captures a moment of gentle connection between the two figures as they interact with tiny yellow birds. The composition reflects the timeless charm and cultural richness of middle-class Bengali life, immortalized through Shaw’s iconic visual language.
Lalu Prasad Shaw | Babu & Bibi | Tempera on Board | 20 x 26 inches | 2017
This painting by Lalu Prasad Shaw, titled Babu-Bibi, is a fine example of the artist’s celebrated series depicting Bengali middle-class couples in a stylized, iconic manner. Executed in tempera on board, the artwork showcases a man and a woman—likely a husband and wife—engaged in a moment of gentle intimacy, each holding a small yellow bird perched on their fingers. The figures are rendered with a smooth, flat aesthetic and clean lines, set against a solid terracotta background that enhances their formality and elegance. The Babu, dressed in a striped kurta and holding a handkerchief, mirrors the Bibi, clad in a traditional green-bordered sari adorned with gold jewelry. Shaw’s art captures not just the attire and appearance of a bygone era, but also the understated grace, pride, and cultural nuances of Bengali society.
Born in Suri Bengal, in 1937, Lalu Prasad Shaw obtained a Diploma in Painting from the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta, in 1959.
Despite training in Company School art, traditional Kalighat pats and Ajanta cave frescos, Shaw evolved his distinctive style to work in watercolours and oil. His teachers were some of the leading artists of the time, such as Gopal Ghose, Rathin Maitra, and Maniklal Banerjee.
In the 1970s, Shaw mastered the genre of graphics — initiated by the Society of Contemporary Artists — expressing it through the abstract form. Shaw experimented with the two-dimensional, geometric and non-figurative, as is evident in his lithographs.
Unlike his prints, Shaw’s paintings are charged with nostalgia and are object-specific. His brooding characters — men, women, and children — seem frozen into a kind of quiescent gesture; they are formal and speechless, but still expressive. Drawing from Mughal miniatures and adhering largely to profiles framed within borders along the edges, Shaw depicts faces of ordinary people, emphasising their physical characteristics. He has also experimented with landscapes, appearing to merge the urban and rural visual in styles ranging from the minimalist to cubist-inspired. His confident use of broad blocks of colours placed harmoniously is seen here too.
Shaw has exhibited extensively in India and abroad and his works form part of national and international collections. He has received prestigious awards like the West Bengal Lalit Kala Akademi award, the national award of the Lalit Kala Akademi, and the Birla Academy award. He lives and works in Kolkata.
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| Dimensions | 50.8 × 66.04 cm |
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