Characteristics and Vita

Poddar was born in Calcutta in 1955 and studied at the Calcutta Art College (focus: painting, design and photography) from 1972. After graduating in 1977, he was awarded a scholarship to the International Animation Institute in Tokyo, where he studied photography and film animation between 1980 and 1982.

The Bombay Art Societyawarded him for his excellentblack-and-white color paintings in 2000. The Indian government honored Poddar for his outstanding work in the visual arts.

Poddar operates on many levels. He is a cosmopolitan, and his extensive travels have taken him to South Asian and European countries and are among the most significant sources of inspiration for his work. The contemplation of the past expands the multidimensionality and is the foundation of his holistic creative process. All sensory impressions, experiences he has gathered, everything that has excited him, everything that has inspired him, everything that has influenced him, shapes his work and is expressed. The continuous transition from past to present is reflected in many of his paintingsand becomes the central, significant element. One can literally feel the silence that he feels on the mountains and in the deep valleys. One glimpses the world as he sees it intellectually and feels it emotionally.

Poddar is a multi-faceted artist, an extraordinary painter, draftsman and watercolorist. His flowing lines and watercolors capture everything he takes in, from the huge, ominous peaks and deep dark canyons in black and white to the bright colors of cities and rivers. In these series of works, human figures are absent. The artistic composition here relies on an uncompromising reduction. Besides landscapes and nature, architecture plays a significant role. Portraits round off Poddar's œuvre.
Furthermore, Poddar convinces as a highly established filmmaker, artistic photographer, printmaker and graphic designer. Numerous publications, illustrations and graphic works for notable figures in the arts, including books on Rabindranath Tagore (poet, philosopher, Nobel laureate) and cover albums for Pt, Ravi Shankar, the Kingston Trio and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

India IN
FULL FRAME
 

Poddar loves to tell stories, he is a gifted storyteller, a taste. During his college years in Calcutta, he was already very involved photographing landscapes and documenting Indian culture. The India in full frame exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson, which he visited with a friend, led to a critical examination of the work of women who prayed in Kashmir. Poddar said that he could not really see what was special about the picture. After all, he himself had taken many very similar photos. Someone nearby listened with interest and asked if that was really so. Poddar confirmed the accuracy of his statement and invited the stranger to his studio to prove it. The gentleman came along, admired Poddar's work, finally revealed himself as Henri Cartier-Bresson, signed and handed smiling, the somewhat puzzled looking Poddar, the exhibition catalog .

Asit Poddar had many solo and group exhibitions in India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Greece, Italy, Austria...

His works are in collections in India, USA, UK, France, Japan, Canada, Korea, Italy, Greece and Austria.

Poddar lives and works in Calcutta.