Biography

Sen Shombit's Gesturism Art has garnered international recognition over the past decade, with exhibitions spanning Japan, Italy, Austria, France, Canada, and India. Notably, he has been featured in prestigious French Salons in Paris, including the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, Salon d’Automne, and Salon des Art Capital.

Born in 1954 in a Calcutta refugee camp, Sen's childhood lacked basic amenities, yet his passion for art persisted. At age 19, armed with just $8 and his early paintings, he journeyed to Paris, driven by a deep-seated belief in his artistic destiny. Despite initial struggles, he found mentorship and inspiration among renowned painters and pursued formal art education at esteemed institutions like the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and Academie Julian Penninghen.

Sen's artistic journey has been shaped by his immersion in Western European art movements, particularly French, since the 1870s. In 1994, he introduced Gesturism Art, a deeply personal pictorial narrative that transcends conventional boundaries, reflecting his quest to unveil the unseen yet essential aspects of existence. Today, Sen divides his time between India and France, continuing to push the boundaries of artistic expression with his visionary approach.

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED STYLE OF PAINTING

Since 2010, Sen Shombit’s painting style has transformed to have abstraction with figures hidden in them.  The renowned French art critic Patrice de la Perriere has coined his style as “Abstract with hidden figuratives (Abstrait cachant du figurative)”. His comment: “Sen’s paintings are encrypted. Viewers have to discover what is hidden inside.” Gallerist and curator Jean-Pierre de Faucigny-Lucinge comment: “Sen is a contemporary painter whose paintings have a western structure while his colour application is unstructured as used in Indian society. This makes his painting style singularly unique, ahead of his time and incomparable.”

EXPOSURE OF ART

In the last 12 years Sen Shombit’s art has been exhibited in different countries such as the US, Canada, China, France, Italy, Austria, Japan and India in solo and group exhibitions.

He has been selected to showcase his works in famous French Salons in Paris such as Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts (created by King Louis XIV inside the Carre de Louvre), Salon d’Automne and Salon des Art Capital, among others.

EUROPEAN ART INFLUENCE

Post invention of Modern Art in France from 1860, fine art had taken a totally new form in Western Europe. This has radically changed fine art from classic to modernity. Sen’s outlook on art was transformed from the French invention of creating art movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism among others.  This structured his mind for artistry. He understood that a specific art style or art movement controlled with coherence of consistency is important for an artist’s art portfolio. It makes the artist become self-disciplined to always create a new subject of art while respecting a defined style and treatment of artwork that is recognizable as that artist’s identity, even without his signature.

EARLY LIFE

In 1954 Sen was born 50 km outside Calcutta in a squatted refugee camp. In 1947 during India’s violent Hindu-Muslim religious partition for independence from 200 years of British colonialism, his family became homeless, forced to quit East Bengal. In this refugee camp with no potable water, no electricity, no sanitation, Sen’s dream of becoming an artist seemed unattainable. At age 12, he suddenly discovered French architectural beauty in Chandannagore, the erstwhile territory of France just across the Ganges river near his refugee camp. That’s when the French artistic wave and culture grabbed Sen’s subconscious mind. Against all odds he persisted with his aspiration for art, driving himself relentlessly to get admitted to Government College of Arts and Crafts (GCAC) in Kolkata, the first British art college in India since 1860. But after 3 years, impatient to experience art in France, he left his Kolkata art college studies unfinished.